Molecular approaches in research of arbuscular mycorrhiza

Abstract

Arbuscular mycorrhiza coevolved with terrestrial plants. Tough it is one of the most wide spread symbioses in terrestrial ecosystems a lot of questions on biology of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and their ecological role in different ecosystems still remain to be answered. With development of new molecular techniques novel possibilities for research of arbuscular mycorhiza have opened, enabling new insights into processes taking place in rhizosphere or broader mycorhizosphere, if in addition to roots, extraradical mycelium of mycorrhizal fungi is taken into consideration. In the first part of the paper a review of recent publications in the field of arbuscular mycorrhiza research is presented, with the emphasis on functional and ecological role, in the second part, a short methodological review is given, with the emphasis on methods used in microbial ecology.