Biodiversity of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal fungi in Agricultural crops of western Himalayas

Root colonization by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi was investigated in different agricultural crops viz., citrus, litchi, pea, cauliflower, cabbage, fenugreek, mustard, turmeric, maize, apple and potato during the present study. It was found that maximum root colonization occurred in apple (47%) and fenugreek (46.3%) followed by litchi (42.3%) and maize (41.3%). Mycorrhizal inoculation efficiency was also investigated and found to an extent of 41.0, 35.3, 31.0 and 30.0% in maize, fenugreek, turmeric and jowar, respectively. The profile of arbuscular mycorrhizal spore density in rhizosphere soils of irrigated and un-irrigated orchards as well as young and old orchards of apple revealed their maximum population in irrigated orchard soils (54.8%) at Katrain in Kullu district and old orchards of Tabo in Lahul and Spiti district (83.2/100g soil) in Himachal Pradesh. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal inoculation influenced dry weight of plants and chlamydospore population as well as infective propagules of fungi in rhizosphere soils of different agricultural crops in western Himalayas.