Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Increase the Yield and Nutritional Quality of Yellow and Purple Fleshed Potatoes (Solanum tuberosum)

Potatoes are the most highly consumed vegetable in the United States and are the primary source of antioxidants in the American diet. Therefore, technologies and growing methods that aim to enhance the nutritional quality of potatoes can have positive impacts on public health. Based on past success with other food crops, we hypothesized that inoculation with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) would increase both the yield and nutritional quality of potatoes. To test this hypothesis, we grew yellow fleshed (cv. Lehigh) and purple fleshed (cv. Adirondack Blue) potatoes in containers with several monospecific AMF inoculants comprised of Rhizophagus irregularis, Funneliformis mosseae, or Claroideoglumus etunicatum, and one indigenous mixed species population inoculant. Overall, we found that AMF inoculation increased potato tuber yield by up to 23%, antioxidant activity by up to 120%, ergothioneine concentration by up to 9X, and soluble sugar concentration by up to 46%, and that the extent of these increases varied by mycorrhizal species. Future research should examine the extent to which inoculation with the most beneficial AMF species reported here improves yield and nutritional quality in the field setting.