Evaluation of the efficiency of arbuscular mycorrhiza fungal inoculants and prospects for their use in agriculture

The work is devoted to the analysis of the symbiotic efficiency and activity of arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) fungi maintained in ARRIAM collection. A comparative analysis of the symbiotic efficiency and activity for 12 strains of AM fungi in a model test system based on the black medic MlS-1 line highly responsive to mycorrhization in conditions of a deficiency of phosphorus available for plant nutrition in the soil is presented. Correlation analysis showed a significant positive linear relationship between the symbiotic efficiency of strains and their activity, the frequency of mycorrhizal infection (F) in the roots of the host plant. Meanwhile, the intensity of mycelium development and the abundance of symbiotic structures (arbuscules and vesicles) did not significantly correlate with AM efficiency indicators that may indicate the absence of genus-specificity of AM fungi to the host plant. These data confirm the prospects for use of effective strains of AM fungi in a wide range of agricultural crops. The possibility of using AM fungi to enhance the adaptation of plants in agriculture to abiotic stress factors such as drought and salinity is discussed. Taking into account the nonspecificity of interaction with plant species, as a result of the study, four effective and active strains of AM fungi are recommended for field testing.