Author(s)

Sanâa Wahbi^1,2, Yves Prin³, Tasnime Maghraoui^1,4, Hervé Sanguin³, Jean Thioulouse⁵, Khalid Oufdou⁴, Mohamed Hafidi², Robin Duponnois^1*

¹IRD, UMR LSTM, Montpellier, France.
²Laboratoire Ecologie & Environnement (Unité Associée au CNRST, URAC 32), Faculté des Sciences Semlalia, Université Cadi Ayyad, Marrakech, Maroc.
³CIRAD, UMR LSTM, Montpellier, France.
⁴Laboratoire de Biologie et de Biotechnologie des Microorganisms, Faculté des Sciences Semlalia, Université Cadi Ayyad, Marrakech, Maro.
⁵Laboratoire de Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive, Université Lyon 1, Villeurbanne, France.

The aim of this study was to test the impact of Rhizophagus irregularis, an arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus (AMF), on durum wheat growth and soil microbial functionalities in a field inoculation trial conducted in Morocco. The results showed that i) the R. irregularis inoculum effectively improved wheat growth, ii) wheat growth promotion depended on the soil mycorrhizal infectivity and iii) functional abilities of soil microflora depended on AMF inoculation. This study confirms that field AMF inoculation can be proposed as an effective agronomic practice in wheat production and as a sustainable cultural practice to manage soil biofunctioning. To fully promote inoculation practices, a better knowledge of AMF ecology has to be acquired to better adapt AMF inoculation to environmental conditions, and thus warrant better yields and agricultural sustainability.

Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi, Field-Grown Wheat, Mycorrhizal Field Inoculation, Nutrient Uptake, Microbial Soil Functions

Wahbi, S. , Prin, Y. , Maghraoui, T. , Sanguin, H. , Thioulouse, J. , Oufdou, K. , Hafidi, M. and Duponnois, R. (2015) Field Application of the Mycorrhizal Fungus Rhizophagus irregularis Increases the Yield of Wheat Crop and Affects Soil Microbial Functionalities. American Journal of Plant Sciences, 6, 3205-3215. doi: 10.4236/ajps.2015.619312.