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Enhancing
forage plant mycorrhization
to improve the supply chain quality of Piedmontese cattle breed |
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THE
PROJECT
Arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) represents the most widespread plant symbiosis, involving root colonization by specialized soil fungi belonging to the Glomeromycota group.  Most crops - including the major species of interest for human and livestock nutrition - establish this symbiosis, obtaining in this way water and mineral nutrients taken up from the soil, and especially phosphate and nitrogen compounds. It is therefore clear that the mycorrhizal status of forage crops is a basic requirement for sustainable feed production (low input, high quality); any advance in the optimization of this symbiotic system could in fact lead to an improvement of crop productivity and, more importantly, of nutritional and organoleptic properties. However, it is well known that the establishment of the symbiosis is largely under the plant control; as a consequence, increasing the amount of fungal inoculum in the soil represents an approach with a limited potential. Greater results could instead be achieved by positively acting on the mycorrhizal aptitude of the host plants, but how to obtain such a result is still matter of debate. The earliest stages of mycorrhizal establishment are critical for the positive outcome of the symbiosis and successful root colonization. In fact, during such pre-symbiotic step the plant recognizes the symbiotic fungus. To activate such recognition, the fungus has been found to deliver “symbiotic signals” to plant roots, which are constituted by small soluble chitin oligomers (CO) or their derivatives. Boosting these symbiotic signals can help to overcome the recalcitrance to the symbiosis displayed by some herbaceous crops as the result of decades of intensive soil fertilization. |
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