…During this evolution, arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi became totally dependant on their host and became obligate symbionts. Today, in the present state of knowledge, it is impossible to grow these fungi independently from a host plant …

…Since the mid-eighties, the use of root organ culture has opened new vistas on several aspects of the AM symbiosis. It has become obvious that all areas of the AM fungi biology per se, as well as of the biology of the symbiotic relationship, have been revisited using monoxenic cultures. Cultivation of AM fungi on root cultures have shed new lights on their molecular biology, cytology, genetic, physiology, systematic and phylogeny, which have since received a tremendous innovative momentum. Large scale industrial production of biologically clean AM inocula produced on root cultures has also become a reality.

With permission from Fortin, Declerck and Strullu, in In vitro culture of mycorrhizas, by Declerck S., Strullu D.G. and Fortin J.A., Springer-Verlag.