Agronomy 2015, 5(4), 587-612; doi:10.3390/agronomy5040587
Role of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi in the Nitrogen Uptake of Plants: Current Knowledge and Research Gaps
Heike Bücking *
and Arjun Kafle
and Arjun KafleBiology and Microbiology Department, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD 57007, USA
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Academic Editors: Anne Krapp and Bertrand Hirel
Received: 9 November 2015 / Revised: 8 December 2015 / Accepted: 10 December 2015 / Published: 16 December 2015
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Nitrogen Transport and Assimilation in Plants)
Abstract
Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi play an essential role for the nutrient uptake of the majority of land plants, including many important crop species. The extraradical mycelium of the fungus takes up nutrients from the soil, transfers these nutrients to the intraradical mycelium within the host root, and exchanges the nutrients against carbon from the host across a specialized plant-fungal interface. The contribution of the AM symbiosis to the phosphate nutrition has long been known, but whether AM fungi contribute similarly to the nitrogen nutrition of their host is still controversially discussed. However, there is a growing body of evidence that demonstrates that AM fungi can actively transfer nitrogen to their host, and that the host plant with its carbon supply stimulates this transport, and that the periarbuscular membrane of the host is able to facilitate the active uptake of nitrogen from the mycorrhizal interface. In this review, our current knowledge about nitrogen transport through the fungal hyphae and across the mycorrhizal interface is summarized, and we discuss the regulation of these pathways and major research gaps. View Full-TextKeywords:
ammonium; arginine; interface; mycorrhiza; nitrate; nutrient transport; organic nitrogen; periarbuscular membrane; phosphate; plant microbe interaction
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. (CC BY 4.0).
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Bücking, H.; Kafle, A. Role of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi in the Nitrogen Uptake of Plants: Current Knowledge and Research Gaps. Agronomy 2015, 5, 587-612.
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