Biodiversity of Vesicular-Arbuscular Mycorrhiza in the rhizosphere of some medicinal plants of Kurukshetra University

The Vesicular-Arbuscular Mycorrhiza (VAM) plays an integral role in agricultural sustainability by increasing the growth and productivity of plants. During the present study, the diversity of VAM fungi was studied in the rhizosphere of 17 medicinal plant species and the parameters, percent root colonization, spore number and diversity of VAM spores associated with the rhizosphere of medicinal plants were calculated. All the selected species were found to be mycorrhizal with varying degrees of species richness. A total of 62 morphotypes belonging to 4 genera, Glomus, Acaulospora, Sclerocystis and Gigaspora were found along with 2 unidentified genera. The spore number varied from 28.6 +/- 9.864 to 326 +/- 78.747 spores per 50g of soil. Percent root colonization ranged from 16.6% to 84.3% with maximum colonization in Barleria cristata L. and minimum colonization in Annona squamosa L. The genus Glomus was dominant with 32 species followed by Acaulospora (12), Gigaspora (9) and Sclerocystis (8).