Dominant Morphotypes of Native Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi from Coffee Plantations and Their Propagation with Trap Plants

Abstract

Coffee cultivation facilitates foreign trade, which is important to the Mexican economy, particularly to the coffee growers of Jilotepec, Veracruz. However, in this region, the soil in which the coffee plants are grown is acidic and has low nutrient availability, making plants susceptible to pests and diseases. In this context, the use of mycorrhizal fungi has gained importance, due to the benefits that they provide in terms of the transport of nutrients and the development of plants, contributing to a reduction in the use of chemical fertilizers. This work aimed to determine the dominant Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in the soil of coffee farms and evaluate the potential of sorghum as a trap plant for these organisms. As a result, ten morphotypes of AMF were detected in the coffee soil, with Glomus and Acaulospora being the dominant genera. It was found that their presence was related to the pH, clay, organic matter, and total carbon of the soil from the farms. The abundance of spores increased significantly (p < 0.05) between the initial count in the soil and the final count after propagation in the sorghum trap plants. The characteristic structures of mycorrhizal colonization and a high percentage of mycorrhizal colonization of the roots of the trap plants (Sorghum vulgare) were observed at 120 days after sowing. It is concluded that Glomus sp1, Glomus sp2, Glomus sp3, Glomus sp4, Rhizophagus clarus, and Acaulospora scrobiculata are the dominant morphotypes in the considered coffee plantation soils and that sorghum has high potential for favoring the propagation of native AMF through increasing their abundance and favoring high mycorrhizal colonization.