Glomalin

[Essay]

I've been reading about volatile exudates of plant roots:

"Mycorrhizal Functioning: An Integrative Plant-Fungal Process"

 

Well, I ran across a better explanation of glomalin!

 

mycorrhiza: Definition from Answers.com

 

mycorrhiza:

Product of close association between the branched, tubular filaments (hyphae) of a fungus and the roots of higher plants. The association usually enhances the nutrition of both the host plant and the fungal symbiont. The establishment and growth of certain plants (e.g., citrus plants, orchids, pines) depends on mycorrhizae; other plants survive but do not flourish without their fungal symbionts.

 

The most common-and possibly the most important-mutualistic, symbiotic relationship in the plant kingdom is known as mycorrhiza. The word mycorrhiza is derived from the Greek words mykes, meaning "fungus," and rhiza, meaning "root." Mycorrhiza is a specialized, symbiotic association between the roots of plants and fungi that occurs in the vast majority of plants-both wild and cultivated. In a mycorrhizal relationship, the fungi assist their host plants by increasing the plants' ability to capture water and essential elements such as phosphorus, zinc, manganese, and copper from the soil, and transfer them into the plant's roots. The fungi also provide protection against attack by pathogens and nematodes. In return for these benefits, the fungal partner receives carbohydrates, amino acids, and vitamins essential for its growth directly from the host plant. Basidiomycetes (mushrooms, bracket fungi, etc.) are the fungal, mycorrhizal partners of trees and other woody plants. Zygomycetes (molds, etc.) are the fungal partners of nonwoody plants. It has been estimated that mycorrhizal fungi amount to 15 percent of the total weight of the world's plant roots.

 

Mycorrhizae form a mutualistic relationship with the roots of most plant species (and while only a small proportion of all species has been examined, 95% of these plant families are predominantly mycorrhizal).[6]

Plants grown in sterile soils and growth media often perform poorly without the addition of spores or hyphae of mycorrhizal fungi to colonise the plant roots and aid in the uptake of soil mineral nutrients.[7] The absence of mycorrhizal fungi can also slow plant growth in early succession or on degraded landscapes.[8]

 

At around 400 million years old, the Rhynie chert contains the earliest fossil assemblage yielding plants preserved in sufficient detail to detect mycorrhizae - and they are indeed observed in the stems of Aglaophyton major.[9]

 

Mycorrhizae are present in 92% of plant families (80% of species),[10] with arbuscular mycorrhizae being the ancestral and predominant form,[10] and indeed the most prevalent symbiotic association found in all the plant kingdom.[3] The structure of arbuscular mycorrhizae has been highly conserved since their first appearance in the fossil record,[9] with both the development of ectomycorrhizae, and the loss of mycorrhizae, evolving convergently on multiple occasions.[10]

 

Mycorrhizas are commonly divided into ectomycorrhizas and endomycorrhizas. The two groups are differentiated by the fact that the hyphae of ectomycorrhizal fungi do not penetrate individual cells within the root, while the hyphae of endomycorrhizal fungi penetrate the cell wall and invaginate the cell membrane.

see: "Arbuscular mycorrhizal wheat"

 

Endomycorrhiza are variable and have been further classified as arbuscular, ericoid, arbutoid, monotropoid, and orchid mycorrhizae [12]. Arbuscular mycorrhizas, or AM (formerly known as vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizas, or VAM), are mycorrhizas whose hyphae enter into the plant cells, producing structures that are either balloon-like (vesicles) or dichotomously-branching invaginations (arbuscules). The fungal hyphae do not in fact penetrate the protoplast (i.e. the interior of the cell), but invaginate the cell membrane. The structure of the arbuscules greatly increases the contact surface area between the hypha and the cell cytoplasm to facilitate the transfer of nutrients between them.

 

Arbuscular [branching, shrublike, bushy] mycorrhizae are formed only by fungi in the division Glomeromycota. Fossil evidence[9] and DNA sequence analysis[13] suggest that this mutualism appeared 400-460 million years ago, when the first plants were colonizing land. Arbuscular mycorrhizas are found in 85% of all plant families, and occur in many crop species.[10] The hyphae of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi produce the glycoprotein glomalin, which may be one of the major stores of carbon in the soil.

 

 

So now the idea of inoculating biochar with VAMF makes more sense, eh?

...crop specificities... bacterial competition... other stuff to consider?

[Michaelangelica]

A bit about this(I think) in the "wee beasties" TP thread