Basic Research and Applications of Mycorrhizae: Volume I

Mycorrhizal research has grown by leaps and bounds in the past few decades. These fungi promise to promote plant growth, maintain plant and soil health, assist in bio-protection against root diseases, production with reduced fertilizer and pesticides & nutrient acquisition, affect soil skeletal structure holding primary soil particles together, are conductive to formation of microaggregate structures, higher rhizosphere population, symbiosis alters host water relations, alter root length and architecture. These fungi also help in re-vegetation of landscapes, golf course or contaminated soils, biological hardening of tissue culture raised plants, postpone leaf dehydration, draught responses, osmo-protecting enzymes and enhance P acquisition. AM symbiosis could conceivably affect any of these steps. AMF should be considered as an alternative to costly soil disinfection. The mechanism(s) by which fungi induce resistance in their hosts and enhance disease resistance need critical evaluation and examination. Editors see this volume as a tremendously valuable collection of specialized up-date chapters describing the State-of-The-Art and Modern Protocols in mycorrhizal research, seriously presented and synthesized.