ABSTRACT
The most abundant fungi in agricultural soils are arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM, phylum Glomeromycota) fungi accounting for 5 to 50% of microbial biomass (Cardoso and Kuyper 2006). AM fungi are soil fungi developing symbioses with most crop plants and hence, are of biological and ecological signifi cance. The fungi obtain exchangeable soluble carbon by carbohydrates from the host plant and greatly enhance plant capacity to
absorb water and nutrients from the soil through their extensive network of hypha (Hause and Fester 2005).
