Arbuscular mycorrhizal and dark septate endophytic association in some grasses from Amravati (M.S.)

Grass family is one of the largest and important families of the plant kingdom and grasses have great role in sustainable development of biodiversity. Present investigation was conducted to study the Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi associated with some of the grasses from three different sites of Amravati region of Maharashtra, India. The physico-chemical characteristics of soil samples of all the study sites were analyzed. The AM Fungal spore count ranged from 130 to 216 and the percent root colonization of AM Fungi varied in the range of 60 to 100%. A total of twenty three fungal species belonging to Glomus, Acaulospora, Sclerocystis and Scutellispora were identified from the rhizosphere soil samples of Eragrostis spectabilis (Pursh) Steudel., Eleusine indica (L) Gaerth., Dactyloctenium aegyptium (L)Willd. and Chloris virgata Sw. (Olof Swartz). The characteristic features of Dark Septate Endophytic (DSE) fungi were also observed in the investigation. Thus AM Fungi are almost ubiquitous in the grasses studied. Further challenge is to gain more knowledge about range of AMF and DSE tax as and their functional role for grasses.