ABSTRACT
About 80% of terrestrial plants formed mycorrhizal association with AMF. Mycorrhizal association stimulates the physiological and molecular reactions even at subcellular stage leading to modification of the structure of plant community which results in the enhancement of plant resistance against all types of biotic and abiotic stresses. Molecular methodologies have been used to identify the AMF at ecosystem level but for specific plant species only. In a sustainable agricultural system farmers used natural procedures to attain improved food quality and productivity without using fertilizers, decrease input costs, and prevent environmental pollution and its side effects. The importance of using AMF inoculation in the sustainable agriculture system depends on the role of AMF for improving plant growth by increasing nutrients and water uptake and also increasing stability of soil aggregates and enhanced soil fertility. AMF interacts with soil-borne pathogen and reduces their effect on plant by antagonism, mycoparasitism, and antibiosis. Further studies are required for better understanding about ecological importance of AMF at community and ecosystem levels. 221numbers of AMF and land plants dated back 460 million years (Redecker, 2002). The most important function of this association is the uptake of phosphorous by roots of higher plants and increased uptake of water by hyphae of fungi. Mycorrhizal association also stimulates the physiological and molecular reactions even at subcellular stage leading to modification of the structure of plant community which results in the enhancement of plant resistance against all types of biotic and abiotic stresses. Plants of the same or different species connected with the help of the hyphal network of mycorrhizal association and that is how the transfer of nutrients, releasing signal molecules related to defense proteins like lipochitooligosaccharides and strigolectones. To understand the physiological and taxonomy of fungi recent studies have been carried out (Saito, 2000; Kohout et al., 2014). These are the members of phylum Glomeromycota and obligate in nature (Redecker et al., 2000). Their role for agriculture ecosystems documented very well and can be utilized for the restoration of the forest ecosystem (Solaiman and Abbott, 2003, 2008; Brundrett and Nanjappa, 2013). ECM fungi also distributed extensively, but they only associated with 3% land plants (Smith and Read, 2008) and are members of the phylum Ascomycota and Basidiomycota (Hibbett et al., 2000). AMF rather than ectomycorrhizal fungi depend on plants for Carbon sources, but when they are symbiotically associated, both required 20–40% of C from the plant that is photosynthetically fixed (McNear, 2013).
