Vol. 10, Special Issue 11 (2021)

Author(s):
M Mythili, A Ramalakshmi, R Anandham and R Karthikeyan

Abstract:
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in soil are a diverse group of organisms that play a vital role in ecosystem balance. However, little research has focused on the AMF diversity of finger millet. In the present study the AM fungi in the finger millet rhizosphere were extracted and diversity and distribution pattern were assessed. Result shows that AMF established a good symbiotic relationship with finger millet. Morphological identification of spores showed existence of 21 AM species in the rhizosphere of finger millet crop. Spore density in samples ranged from 47±0.73 to 132±2.4 spores 100 g^-1 soil. Species richness of AMF ranged from 4±0.04 to 10±0.15. Shannon and Simpson diversity index ranged from 1.25±0.01 to 2.1±0.003 and 0.71±0.02 to 0.87±0.01. The 21 species recorded from the samples were belongs to 11 genera, viz., Glomus, Claroideoglomus, Paraglomus, Rhizophagus, Funneliformis, Gigaspora, Entrophosphora, Acaulospora, Ambispora, Scutellospora and Septoglomus. The genus Glomus was the most dominant genera and Funneliformis mosseae was dominant species in our study. This research implies that native AM inoculum could be used in the respective environments to enhance plant growth and productivity.