The mechanisms of nutrient uptake by Arbuscular Mycorrhizae

Mycorrhizal fungi are one of the commonly occurring living organism in soil facilitating plants in growth, development, stress tolerance, soil pollutants remediation, C-sequestration, food security and agricultural sustainability. Mycor-rhizal fungi assist the plants in nutrient absorption by extending mycorrhizal hyphae network beyond the rhizosphere. Mycorrhizal inoculation alters the root architecture and studies showed that nutrient absorption capacity of inoculated root is much better than non-inoculated. For a long time, it is assumed that roots absorb nutrients only through direct pathway (DP) only while contribution of AM fungi in nutrients uptake by mycorrhizal pathway (MP) has been ignored. But now the development in scientific methods and tools, enabled the researcher to explore MP mechanism for macro and micro nutrients, moreover suppression of heavy metal stress to the plants. Besides that, mycorrhizal fungi obtain around 20% of photosynthesized C from the plant in exchange of nutrients. Moreover, this C triggers nutrient uptake and their translocation. Plant hormones and root exudates also influence the infection formation and development, they also point out new sites for the interaction of mycorrhizal fungi and plant roots. Nutrient mobility by MP is more secure and economical than DP. Understanding about the nutrient exploration, mobilization, and uptake in root-mycorrhizal interaction has been discussed here at molecular level. Contribution of plant and mycorrhizal transporters have been discussed which need further understanding. Also contribution of mycorrhizal inoculation on nutrient uptake compared with non-inoculated roots were discussed. © Springer International Publishing AG 2017