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THE INFLUENCE OF VESICULAR‐ARBUSCULAR MYCORRHIZAS ON PHOSPHORUS TRANSFER BETWEEN PLANTS
Author(s) -
HEAP ALISON J.,
NEWMAN E. I.
Publication year - 1980
Publication title -
new phytologist
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.742
H-Index - 244
eISSN - 1469-8137
pISSN - 0028-646X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8137.1980.tb04458.x
Subject(s) - lolium perenne , shoot , biology , mycorrhiza , plantago , phosphorus , trifolium repens , botany , hypha , arbuscular mycorrhiza , repens , agronomy , horticulture , symbiosis , perennial plant , chemistry , bacteria , genetics , organic chemistry
SUMMARY In six experiments Lolium perenne L. and Plantago lanceolata L. were grown together in pots. Two experiments also included L. perenne alone, P. lanceolata alone, or L. perenne + Trifolium repens L. In five of the experiments prior sterilization of the soil followed by reinoculation was used to obtain two treatments, one having plants infected with vesicular‐arbuscular mycorrhiza, the other non‐mycorrhizal. The shoots of some plants in each pot (‘donors’) were injected with 32 P. After a week these shoots were removed, and after a further week the remaining plants (‘receivers’) were harvested and their 32 P content determined. In all experiments and species‐combinations there was some 32 P transfer to the shoots of both mycorrhizal and non‐mycorrhizal receiver plants. The amount of transfer in mycorrhizal treatments was 2 to 8‐fold greater than in non‐mycorrhizal treatments, except in one experiment where mycorrhizal infection was very low. There was no clear difference between the different species combinations in the amount by which phosphorus transfer was enhanced by mycorrhizas. These results show that mycorrhizas can increase phosphorus transport between plants, but do not show whether there is direct transport from one root to another via interconnecting hyphae or whether the phosphorus must leave the donor root before being taken up by mycorrhizal hyphae.