Symbiosis
with fungi has been determinant for the evolution of vascular
plants since their apparition on land. Devonian Rhynia fossils
400 million years old, permit to observe in the lower part
of their stems, fungal structures closely resembling modern
Glomales …
…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.
The CEnter of Study on AM Monoxenics of
the Microbiology unit of the "Université catholique
de Louvain" (Belgium) has made the in vitro
cultivation of AMF its premium activity to elucidate various
aspects, from genomic to functional, of the obligate biotrophic
nature of these ubiquitous below-ground fungi.
The CESAMM team.
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Address :
Microbiology unit
CEnter of Study on AM Monoxenics
Université catholique de Louvain
Croix du Sud, 3 bt 6
1348 Louvain-la-Neuve
BELGIUM
tel. : +32 10 47 46 44
fax : +32 10 45 15 01 |
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