Screening of arbuscular-mycorrhizal fungi for enhanced growth and survival of micropropagated grape (Vitis vinifera ) plantlets

Abstract

A glass house study was carried out during 2002-2003 to evaluate the efficacy of different arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi strains for their utility as bio-hardening agent(s) for tissue culture derived grape (Vitis vinifera L.) plantlets at IARI, New Delhi. All the strains were found to significantly enhance the ex vitro survival of micropropagated plantlets over control. Growth paranlcters like plant height, root length, shoot and root dry weights, leafnumber, leafarea and physiological parameters such as relative water content and photosynthetic rate registered significantly higher values in inoculated plantlets than the control. Furthermore, the nutritional status of the mycorrhizal plantlets was also found to be improved. The different arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi species tried were Acaulospora laevis, A. scrobiculata, Entrophospora colombiana, Gigaspora gigantea, Glonzus lrzanihotis, Scutellospora heteroganza and a mixed arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi inocula. Acaulospora laevis followed by mixed inocula were found to be majority responsive as they affected most ofthe parameters and also resulted in maximum hardening success oftissue cultured plantlets.