The Mycorrhizae : Diversity, Ecology and Applications

Contents: Preface. 1. Rhizoendomutualmycota (REMM): a new phylum for the farmers\' friend number one/S.P. Gautam and U.S. Patel. 2. Diversity of Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in India/V.S. Mehrotra. 3. Diversity and integration in mycorrhizas: meaning to plant ecology/Subhendu Chaudhuri and Birendranath Panja. 4. Mycorrhizal biotechnology for increasing growth and productivity of fruit plants/Pradeep B. Patil and Chaya P. Patil. 5. Arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis: an overview of research and extension needs/Mukesh K. Meghvansi, K.K. Chaudhary and Kamal Prasad. 6. Vesicular Arbuscular mycorrhizae: modern research trends and future prospects/Ashok Aggarwal, Vipin Parkash, R.S. Mehrotra, Anil Gupta and Sunita Kaushish. 7. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi under the dynamics of rhizosphere/Shruti Chaturvedi, Nisha Verma and A.K. Sharma. 8. Arbuscular mycorrhiza on root-organ cultures/Nishi Mathur, Joginder Singh, Sachendra Bohra, Avinash Bohra and Anil Vyas. 9. Application of AM Technology for Phytoremediation of heavy metal contaminated soils/Harbans Kaur Kehri, Nidhi Sharma and Varun Khare. 10. Mycorrhizal Technology in revegetation practices in Indian Thar Desert/Nishi Mathur, Joginder Singh, Sachendra Bohra, Avinash Bohra and Anil Vyas. 11. Approaches to Utilize Native Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Association for Improving P Nutrition in Upland Rice under Rainfed Ecosystem/D. Maiti, M.K. Barnwal, R.K. Singh and S.K. Rana. 12. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in forest tree seedling production/T. Muthukumar and K. Udaiyan. 13. Reclamation of saline soil through arbuscular mycorrhizae/Sudhir Chandra, Anshu Tiwari and H.K. Kehri. 14. Role of Mycorrhizal Association in growth of forest trees/Lakshmi Tewari, Salil K. Tewari and Rajesh Kaushal. 15. Vesicular Arbuscular mycorrhiza in Actinorhizal Plants and their management implications/Kiran Bargali and S.S. Bargali. 16. Methods for Arbuscular mycorrhizal research/Purshotam Kaushik and Supriya Gaur. 17. Diversity of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi in the Kumaun Region of Indian Central Himalaya/Bhaskar Chaurasia, Anita Pandey and Lok Man S. Palni. 18. Effect of AM Fungi on the growth and nutrition uptake in some Endemic Myristicaceae Members of the Western Ghats, India/P. Rama Bhat and K.M. Kaveriappa. 19. Diversity of AM Fungi in some Endemic Members of Myristicaceae of the Western Ghats, India/P. Rama Bhat and K.M. Kaveriappa. 20. Role of Vesicular Arbuscular mycorrhizal (Glomus Aggregatum) fungi on plant growth promotion in Chickpea/Daljeet Singh and R.S. Singh. 21. Mycorrhiza for growth enhancement and pathogen suppression in black pepper/M. Anandaraj. Index.

"Many plants benefit greatly from symbiotic relationship with soil fungi known as mycorrhizal fungi. These fungi live on and in the root systems of plants and provide nutrients to the plant in exchange for carbohydrates exuded by the plants. Some of the ecological uses of mycorrhizae include (i) enhancing plant growth and disease resistance, (ii) improving transplant success, (iii) building soil structure. (iv) reducing fertilizer dependency and (v) accelerating revegetation of degraded lands.

While over 80 per cent of the Terrestrial Plants Show Mycorrhizal Association, the depth of its application towards industries seems to be under-exploited. Moreover, severe deforestation and land degradation have removed the host plants from the habitats giving way to loss of diversity of the mycorrhizal fungi. Particularly, this problem is acute in the tropical region of the world, where various natural calamities such as floods, landslides, fire, etc. in addition to the human exploitation of natural resources have degraded the major part of the ecosystems. Although, causes are known, strategies to rebuild the degraded systems remain bliss. There are many national and international journals that bring out the information about the mycorrhizal fungi and their symbiotic relationship with plants but the recent knowledge is almost in scattered state. This scattered information could be kept in a book to provide up-to-date information about mycorrhizal research especially being done in different corner of India.

This book is a very selective monograph on mycorrhizae covering its different aspects. It is an excellent collection of 21 articles dealing with different disciplines of mycorrhizae and mycorrhizal research carried out by Indian scientists. In order to consummate the collective ideas on mycorrhizal association, its diversity and applications, a number of themes have been identified for this book, including (i) biodiversity and ecological issues on Mycorrhizal Association, (ii) physiology and molecular biology of plant-mycorrhizal fungal interactions, (iii) potential industrial applications.

It is doubtless to say that this book would be very useful to all scientists, teachers, students and readers whosoever is interested on mycology and mycological literature." (jacket)