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Importance of Mycorrhizae in Crop Productivity

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Mitigating Environmental Stresses for Agricultural Sustainability in Egypt

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Abstract

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi symbioses can pose a beneficial impact for sustaining agroecosystem functioning, for instance, improving plant nutrient uptake, plant growth under water deficit and crop productivity and quality. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi are known to receive photosynthetic carbon from the host plants; in return, they provide host plants with some nutrients. Organic fertilizers and related sources of nutrients, as well as slow-release mineral fertilizers, can inspire arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi activity in the rhizosphere, while many investigations revealed that most of the chemical fertilizers suppress the activity of mycorrhiza and their colonization with host plant roots. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi mainly play a vital role in plant phosphorus nutrition, and consequently, increase plant uptake of phosphorus. Moreover, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi can play an important in the plant uptake for inorganic phosphate as well as some other immobile nutrients in the soil and moving them into the host plants. Thus, the main function of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi is to supply colonized plant roots with phosphorus. Recently, some investigations reported that arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi could provide the host plants with nitrogen from organic sources via converting it into inorganic nitrogen. Also, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi hyphae can directly take up ammonium, nitrate and amino acids from the rhizosphere and translocate them into their host plants in inorganic form. In the current chapter, the focus will include background about the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, the importance of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in plant nutrient and crop productivity under water deficit and salinity stress.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Plant Production Department, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, 2460, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia

    Mahmoud Fathy Seleiman

  2. Department of Crop Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Menoufia University, 32514, Shibin El-kom, Egypt

    Mahmoud Fathy Seleiman & Ali Nasib Hardan

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  1. Mahmoud Fathy Seleiman
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  2. Ali Nasib Hardan
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Correspondence to Mahmoud Fathy Seleiman .

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  1. Faculty of Agriculture, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt

    Hassan Awaad

  2. Faculty of Agriculture, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt

    Mohamed Abu-hashim

  3. Faculty of Engineering, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt

    Abdelazim Negm

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Seleiman, M.F., Hardan, A.N. (2021). Importance of Mycorrhizae in Crop Productivity. In: Awaad, H., Abu-hashim, M., Negm, A. (eds) Mitigating Environmental Stresses for Agricultural Sustainability in Egypt. Springer Water. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-64323-2_17

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