SYMPLANTA
GmbH & Co. KG
Welcome to our web-pages about plant-growth and plant-resistance promoting arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi.
Why include AM fungi and related services in your research and application?
Which are the main challenges for humankind in the next decades?
Problems in food production will perhaps become the most critical one. Within the next 50-100 years, global high quality rock phosphate reserves will deplete. The global peak P (the point of time when production starts to decrease due to resource depletion) is forecasted for 2040-2050 and reserves of one of the biggest producers, the U.S.A., are calculated to be already depleted in 2040. Rock phosphate is the primary, but non-renewable source for large scale P-fertilization in agriculture, and currently there is no practical or theoretical alternative. Despite this, as applied in high input agricultural systems, e.g. in the U.S.A. and Europe, more than 60% of the P are being wasted. The general situation for food production is even worse, because fertile soil resources will start declining very soon - which implies that 'peak soil' and 'peak phosphorous' will most likely occur even earlier than 'peak oil'. Each of these three 'peaks' in production or availability alone might already be disastrous for our food-safety
The nutrition of about 80% of all land plants depends on AM fungi
How to solve the noted problems, at least partially? This is a matter of debate; realistically however the future looks bleak. But it is increasingly becoming evident that a better understanding of the arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) symbiosis will play a significant role in urgently needed sustainable agricultural practices: AM is a key symbiosis for efficient P-uptake by plants. More than 80% of the land plants do not not take up most of their needed P (and other nutrients) directly from soil through their roots, but indirectly, through symbiotic AM fungi. AM fungi efficiently explore the soil and deliver nutrients to the plant roots. In exchange, the plants supply large amounts of photosynthesis derived sugars and lipids to the fungi (which are a globally relevant CO2 sink). The nutrient exchange mainly takes place within plant root cells at the fungus-plant symbiotic interface, formed around the finely branched fungal arbuscules, the eponymous structure of this symbiosis.
The 10 most important food crops for human nutrition all form AM!
(see a list with some important AM-forming plants).