Indigenous arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in the grapevines from karstic soils

Summary:

The aim of the proposed project is to study arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in the grapevines from the karstic soils of Croatia. These symbiotic fungi have exceptionally beneficial role in plants' growth and health and hence are worldwide used as biofertilizers. In Croatia such natural soil potential has never been explored. Therefore, this project aims at establishing the collection of indigenous strains, cultivated in vivo and/or in vitro. These will serve for further scientific experiments on functioning of mycorrhizal fungi-grapevines symbiosis and selecting the effective strains for the use as inoculants in sustainable agriculture, reducing thus the role of mineral fertilizers and pesticides. The collection will be maintained in Institute for Adriatic Crops and Karst Reclamation, Split, and also in parallel in GINCO (Belgium), the world largest in vitro collection of this type of fungi. It is expected that abundance of species and strains could be found in karstic part of Croatia, since this region is known as one of the richest European parts in flora diversity and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi usually reflect this state. In order to collect as more different strains as possible, samplings will be conducted in vineyards situated in different climatic conditions and where different agricultural practices are being applied. However, not only the species or strains composition are important for the functioning of their relation to grapevines, but also the seasonal changes in mycorrhizal infection of grapevine roots and their spores' abundance, which is additional object of this project.

AMF in symbiosis with grapevines are the object of the proposed project since grapevine is one of the economically most important crops in Mediterranean part of Croatia. It is also the crop whose establishment and growth is highly dependent on the presence of AMF in soils, since its root density is low in comparison to other crops and in such plants AMF plays even a more significant role.

The project activities will develop collaboration with Belgian partners who are distinguished experts in in vitro cultivation of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. The collaboration will also be intensified with the Faculty of Agronomy from Zagreb and lead to new collaborations within Croatia in grapevines physiology and ecology that have been ignoring mycorrhizal fungi till now. The host Institute will get a new dimension of research - soil microbiology, that has not been studied in this region before. This project will be the start of getting the applicable research results on arbuscular mycorrhizae and hopefully enable development of additional practical tool for Croatian grapevine farmers for transfer to sustainable agriculture.