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Extraradical mycelium network of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi allows fast colonization of seedlings under in vitro conditions

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Abstract

Actively growing extraradical hyphae extending from mycorrhizal plants are an important source of inoculum in soils which has seldom been considered in vitro to inoculate young plantlets. Seedlings of Medicago truncatula were grown in vitro in the extraradical mycelium network extending from mycorrhizal plants. After 3, 6, 9, 12, and 15 days of contact with the mycelium, half of the seedlings were harvested and analyzed for root colonization. The other half was carefully transplanted in vitro on a suitable growth medium and mycelium growth and spore production were evaluated for 4 weeks. Seedlings were readily colonized after 3 days of contact with the mycelium. Starting from 6 days of contact, the newly colonized seedlings were able to reproduce the fungal life cycle, with the production of thousands of spores within 4 weeks. The fast mycorrhization process developed here opens the door to a broad range of in vitro studies for which either homogenous highly colonized seedlings or mass-produced in vitro inoculum is necessary.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a grant from (1) the “Fonds Spéciaux de Recherche” (FSR) of the Université catholique de Louvain, (2) a Marie Curie Early stage Research Training Fellowship of the European Community’s Sixth Framework Programme under contract number MEST CT-2005-021016, (3) the Belgian Science Policy-Program “Science for a Sustainable Development” under contract number SD/BD/05A, (4) the Direction Générale des Relations extérieures of the Région Wallonne for bilateral collaboration between Belgium and Cuba, and (5) the Belgian Federal Office for Scientific, Technical and Cultural affairs (OSTC, contract BCCM C3/10/003).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unité de Microbiologie, Université catholique de Louvain, Croix du Sud 3, 1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

    Liesbeth Voets, Ivan Enrique de la Providencia, Kalyanne Fernandez, Marleen IJdo & Stéphane Declerck

  2. Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Agricolas (INCA), Km 3½ Carretera de Tapaste, Gaveta Postal 1, San José de Las Lajas, Havana, Cuba

    Kalyanne Fernandez

  3. Unité de Microbiologie, Mycothèque de l’Université Catholique de Louvain (MUCL), Université catholique de Louvain, Croix du Sud 3, 1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

    Sylvie Cranenbrouck

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  1. Liesbeth Voets
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  2. Ivan Enrique de la Providencia
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  3. Kalyanne Fernandez
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  4. Marleen IJdo
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  5. Sylvie Cranenbrouck
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  6. Stéphane Declerck
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Correspondence to Stéphane Declerck.

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Liesbeth Voets and Ivan Enrique de la Providencia contributed equally to this work.

MUCL is part of the Belgian Coordinated Collections of Micro-organisms (BCCM).

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Voets, L., de la Providencia, I.E., Fernandez, K. et al. Extraradical mycelium network of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi allows fast colonization of seedlings under in vitro conditions. Mycorrhiza 19, 347–356 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00572-009-0233-6

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