Tools and challenges to exploit microbial communities in agriculture.

Plants contain diverse microbial communities. The associated microorganisms confer advantages to the host plant, which include growth promotion, nutrient absorption, stress tolerance, and pathogen and disease resistance. In this review, we explore how agriculture is implementing the use of microbial inoculants (single species or consortia) to improve crop yields, and discuss current strategies to study plant-associated microorganisms and how their diversity varies under unconventional agriculture. It is predicted that microbial inoculation will continue to be used in agriculture.

Revisión: Distribución y efecto de los hongos micorrízicos en el agroecosistema de café / Distribution and effect of mycorrhizal fungi in the coffee agroecosystem: A review

Resumen Introducción: El café es una planta altamente micotrófica, por lo que la interacción con los hongos micorrízicos arbusculares (HMA) se ha estudiado en distintos países tropicales. La mayoría de los trabajos publicados indican que el café se beneficia de la asociación micorrízica, donde los HMA confieren protección ante patógenos y enfermedades, incrementa la absorción de agua, así como la adaptación de la planta durante el trasplante de vivero al campo. Objetivo: Se realizó una revisión donde se resumieron y analizaron trabajos reportados por la asociación de HMA y café de los últimos 10 años, enfocada en la distribución global de especies de HMA, beneficio nutricional de la asociación y su interacción con patógenos. Métodos: Se revisaron diferentes bases de datos que reportaron trabajos realizados en los principales países productores de café. La revisión se centró principalmente en los trabajos publicados entre el 2000 y el 2019, sin embargo, en algunos casos se incluyeron artículos clásicos en el tema, que no corresponden al periodo señalado, principalmente los realizados en Brasil desde 1986. Se organizó el número de especies reportadas por país, se buscaron sinonimias y agruparon por familia, género y especie. Los trabajos donde solo se reportan géneros o las especies presentaron ambigüedad, se usaron como referencia, pero no se incluyeron en el análisis final. Se resumieron los reportes de los beneficios de la interacción de HMA con café, así como la tolerancia a patógenos. Resultados: Los datos recabados muestran que hay más de 100 especies de HMA asociadas con el café, lo cual representa más de la tercera parte del total de las especies reportadas en el mundo. En Colombia se reportó la mayor riqueza de especies de HMA, lo cual puede deberse a que es el país con más reportes en el tema. Conclusiones: Esta información muestra los beneficios de la incorporación de HMA en los programas de replantación de fincas de café, pues estos hongos son un elemento clave en la nutrición de los cafetos, sin embargo, se debe considerar la variedad de café cultivada y la introducción de HMA, pues no en todas hay una asociación exitosa.

Abstract Introduction: Coffee is a highly mycotrophic plant, its interaction with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi has been studied among different tropical countries. The majority of the published works indicates that coffee is benefited from the mycorrhizal association, where the AMF confers protection against pathogens and diseases, increases water absorption, as well as it increases the adaptation of the plant at transplant from nurseries to the main plantation. Objective: A review was made where we summarized and analyze the research reports of AMF with coffee from at least the past 10 years, focused on AMF global species distribution, nutritional benefits of the association and interaction with pathogens. Methods: We retrieved available bibliographic data from coffee producer countries in public databases. We considered published works from 2000 to 2019, nevertheless, we included classic papers on the topic, outside that period, mainly the ones performed in Brazil since 1986. We organized the number of reported species per country, we look for synonyms, grouped them by family, genera and species. The reports that only reported genera or where ambiguous were used as reference but not considered for the final analysis. We summarized the reports of the benefits of the AMF interaction in coffee, as well as pathogen tolerance. Results: The collected data shows that there are more than 100 AMF species associated with coffee, which represents more than a third part of the total of reported species worldwide. We found that Colombia has the highest richness, but it also has the highest number of published reports. Conclusions: This information shows the benefits of the incorporation of AMF to coffee plantation programs, because these fungi are a key element in coffee plant nutrition, nevertheless, the coffee variety should be considered when introducing AMF, as not all associations has been efficient.

Folates in legume root nodules.

Folates are multifunctional metabolites in plants that are essential for cell division, nucleic acids and amino acid synthesis. During symbiotic nitrogen fixation in legumes, these cofactors are needed for de novo purine biosynthesis, meaning that changes in the folate pools could directly affect the flow of fixed nitrogen to the plant. Its role related to symbiotic nitrogen fixation has not been yet explored, but recent data suggest a relevant role during the first steps. Transcriptomic, metabolomic and proteomic analyses indicate that folates are accumulated in symbiotic plant tissue, as they are involved, not only in de novo purines biosynthesis, but in nitrogen translocation, endoreduplication and phytohormones biosynthesis. Understanding the possible implication of folate pools during the nitrogen fixation and assimilation, might aid for new engineering targets, in relation to the two transformylations or the production of glycine by serine hydroxymethyltransferase during the de novo purine biosynthetic pathway. In this review, we intend to deliver and discuss the available evidence that support a relevant role of folates during the symbiotic nitrogen fixation.

Isolation and Culture of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi from Field Samples.

The isolation of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi from different land use is the starting point for selecting and producing inoculants. There are different techniques to isolate and produce large-scale arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi-based inoculum, being soil, inert substrate, and in vitro culture techniques among the most used by different biofertilizer producers. This chapter describes an active operating method to isolate and produce large-scale fungal inoculant in substrate-based manufacturing. In addition, critical parameters are presented for the optimal production of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal inoculum. All the steps of the process are enlisted: from choosing the source of inoculum, its production, scaling, sustaining quality control, to shelf life.