ABSTRACT
Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are a ubiquitous group of soil fungi that form mutualistic, symbiotic relationships with the roots of over 90% of higher plants. Most of the observed growth responses of plant hosts to AM cohabitation result from the enhanced uptake and sharing of phosphorus by fungal hyphae, with increased uptake of zinc, copper, potassium, calcium, silicon, nitrogen, and sulfur also attributable to activity of the fungal symbionts. AM fungi are particularly interesting because they have been co-evolving with plants for over 400 million years. Industrial-scale agricultural production systems and land restoration efforts have historically paid relatively little attention to AM fungi, despite the widely accepted benefits attributable to these ubiquitous soil organisms. Communities of AM fungi in agroecosystems display very little host plant specificity.
