Root Research

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Symbiosis between plants and fungi so called mycorrhiza greatly contributes to maintenance of ecology such as renewal of forest, circulation of carbon flow, bioremediation of environment, preservation of plant species diversity. Symbiotic relationship between plants and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi is thought to start approximately 400 million years ago when plants landed on ground for the first time and to be the oldest among mycorrhizas. Arbuscular mycorrhiza is considered to have no host specificity as it is found in around 80% of land plant species. In order to colonize different host plants, it is assumed that arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi are required to possess strategies for competing with other microorganisms and high compatibility with their hosts. “Compatibility” is the result of an evolutional relationship between plants and microorganisms which have been selected as plant partners for their survival. This review introduces from the process for symbiosis between plants and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi to the role of bioprotection by the symbiosis.

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In terrestrial ecosystems, mycorrhizal fungi are considered to have important role on carbon cycling and its biomass has been studied to quantify their role. We noted why mycorrhizal fungi are important on carbon cycling and focused one of the key factors to asses how much mycorrhizal fungi contribute on the forest carbon cycling, i.e., the biomass of mycorrhizal fungi in ectomycorrhizal fine roots. Three direct methods to quantify the ectomycorrhizal fungi in ectomycorrhizal fine roots were introduced. In the pioneer studies, the value 40% was used as a fungal content in ectomycorrhizal fine roots in many types of forests. However, recent studies showed that the value 40% was not always suitable in various types of forest. Through this report, we emphasize the importance of the further data accumulations in this study field that would lead more precise estimation of forest carbon cycling..

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