Enhancing ecosystem services in sustainable agriculture: Biofertilization and biofortification of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi

By Elisa Pellegrino, S. Bedini. 2014

192 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) establishing beneficial symbiosis with most crop plants have gained a growing interest as agro-ecosystem service providers able to sustain crop productivity and quality. In this study we tested the agronomic relevance of field-inoculated locally sourced and foreign inocula on chickpea ( Cicer arietinum L.), one of the most important worldwide grain legumes. The foreign AMF Funneliformis mosseae and Rhizophagus irregularis were used as single and dual species inocula. Crop growth and productivity, plant nutrient uptakes and protein, Fe and Zn grain biofortification were assessed under a rainfed low-input cropping system after autumn and spring sowings. Uni- and multivariate analyses of data showed that AM fungal field inoculation increased chickpea AM fungal root colonization as well as plant biomass and yield. In addition, AMF were also effective in improving the nutritional value of grain by protein, Fe and Zn biofortification. The locally sourced AM fungal inoculum was more efficient then the foreign ones in Fe and Zn grain biofortification and, in the spring sowing treatment, also in improving yield and grain protein content. These findings enhance our understanding of the field potential role of AMF showing that a mycorrhiza-friendly approach in agriculture may have great potential in biofertilization of crops and biofortification of foods.

Subfields: Plant Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c6e987fa85b5c5df62fbd562827b6eadf703984c

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In Plant Science

1. Mariama Ngom
2. M. Ashraf
3. V. Bianciotto
4. A. Berruti
5. E. Lumini
6. R. Balestrini
7. N. Akram
8. E. A. Ibrahim

Citations in the corpus

• Roles of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi on Plant Growth and Performance: Importance in Biotic and Abiotic Stressed Regulation (2020, background): “Inoculation with AMF improves the grain nutritional content in protein, Fe, and Zn [44].”
• Role of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi in Plant Growth Regulation: Implications in Abiotic Stress Tolerance (2019, background): “Moreover, communal nutrients also relocate from fungi to the plant, along with other related effects, which is probably why AMF improve plant tolerance to biotic and abiotic factors (Plassard and Dell,  2010).”
• Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi as Natural Biofertilizers: Let's Benefit from Past Successes (2016, background): “Pellegrino and Bedini (2014) have demonstrated that AM fungal field inoculation could be an effective tool to improve the cultivation of chickpea as it can improve productivity, but also the grain nutritional content in protein, Fe and Zn.”