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Molecular diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in onion roots from organic and conventional farming systems in the Netherlands

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Abstract

Diversity and colonization levels of naturally occurring arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in onion roots were studied to compare organic and conventional farming systems in the Netherlands. In 2004, 20 onion fields were sampled in a balanced survey between farming systems and between two regions, namely, Zeeland and Flevoland. In 2005, nine conventional and ten organic fields were additionally surveyed in Flevoland. AMF phylotypes were identified by rDNA sequencing. All plants were colonized, with 60% for arbuscular colonization and 84% for hyphal colonization as grand means. In Zeeland, onion roots from organic fields had higher fractional colonization levels than those from conventional fields. Onion yields in conventional farming were positively correlated with colonization level. Overall, 14 AMF phylotypes were identified. The number of phylotypes per field ranged from one to six. Two phylotypes associated with the Glomus mosseae–coronatum and the G. caledonium–geosporum species complexes were the most abundant, whereas other phylotypes were infrequently found. Organic and conventional farming systems had similar number of phylotypes per field and Shannon diversity indices. A few organic and conventional fields had larger number of phylotypes, including phylotypes associated with the genera Glomus-B, Archaeospora, and Paraglomus. This suggests that farming systems as such did not influence AMF diversity, but rather specific environmental conditions or agricultural practices.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Ir. R. van den Broek for information on onion growers provided for the survey, P. Hendrickx, B. Lavrijssen, and T. Olijnsma for technical assistance during the molecular and microscopic analyses, and Prof. Dr. R. Hoekstra for critically reading the manuscript. This work was funded by the Dutch Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food quality as part of Programme 388-II Plant Breeding for Organic Farming. G.A. Galván thanks the Alßan Programme of the European Union (Fellowship E03D02847UR), PDT-CONICYT Uruguay (Fellowship S/C/BE/20/09), and the NFP (the Netherlands) for their financial support. Laboratory studies by I. Parádi were done via a Huygens Fellowship awarded by Nuffic (the Netherlands).

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Author notes

  1. István Parádi

    Present address: Department of Plant Physiology and Molecular Plant Biology, Eötvös Loránd University, P.O. Box 120, H-1518, Budapest, Hungary

  2. Jacqueline Baar

    Present address: Knowledge Centre Triple E, Sweerts de Landasstraat 46, 6814 DG, Arnhem, The Netherlands

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Plant Research International, Wageningen University and Research Center, P.O. Box 16, 6700 AA, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Guillermo A. Galván, Karin Burger, Olga E. Scholten & Chris Kik

  2. Dept. Producción Vegetal, CRS, Facultad de Agronomía, Universidad de la República, Progreso, Uruguay

    Guillermo A. Galván

  3. Mushroom Section of Applied Plant Research, Plant Research International, Wageningen University and Research Centre, P.O. Box 16, 6700 AA, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    István Parádi & Jacqueline Baar

  4. Department of Soil Quality, Wageningen University and Research Center, P.O. Box 47, 6700 AA, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Thomas W. Kuyper

  5. Centre for Genetic Resources (CGN), Wageningen University and Research Centre, P.O. Box 16, 6700 AA, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Chris Kik

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  1. Guillermo A. Galván
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Correspondence to Guillermo A. Galván.

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Authors Guillermo A. Galván and István Parádi contributed equally to this research and share first co-authorship.

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Table S1

Number of fields which harbor specific AMF phylotype per surveyed year (DOC 48.5 KB)

Table S2

Presence or absence of AMF phylotypes in each onion field (DOC 46.5 KB)

Figure S1

Phylogenetic analysis of 18S rDNA sequences of Glomus-A (DOC 313 KB)

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Galván, G.A., Parádi, I., Burger, K. et al. Molecular diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in onion roots from organic and conventional farming systems in the Netherlands. Mycorrhiza 19, 317–328 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00572-009-0237-2

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