Effect of Non-Host Plant on the Community of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are widespread across lands managed for production as well as conservation. In general, AM communities become less diverse as land becomes intensively farmed, and the benefit of AM fungi may differ with the crop. In Thailand, there is little knowledge of AM community. This study aimed to determine the AM community under two crop regimes; maize (Zea mays L.) as AM host plant and cabbage (Brassica oleracea L. cv. cabitata) as non-AM host plant, grown on Pak Chong soil series (Ultisol). The pot experiment was undertaken with field soil containing 12 AM fungal species across 4 genera: 2 species of Acaulospora, 2 species of Entrophospora, 7 species of Glomus and 1 species of Scutellospora. The maize and cabbage were grown for 120 days. One month after harvest, the number of AM spores of each morphospecies was determined. The spore number of 6 AM species (Entrophospora sp. 2, and Glomus spp. 1, 4, 5, 6 and 7), were significantly increased under maize. By contrast, cabbage crop had both positive and negative effect on the AM community. There were 3 species (Entrophospora sp. 2, Glomus spp. 1 and 7) increasing in spore number but spore number of 4 species (Acaulospora sp. 1, Entrophospora sp. 1, Glomus spp. 2 and 3) were decreased. Therefore, the results indicate that the AM community was altered by the plant crop. The non-AM host plant decreased the abundance of some AM species in the community.