Arbuscular mycorrhizal and dark septate endophyte fungal association in some plants of Tripura, North-East India

Mycorrhizal fungi are ecologically significant because they form relationships with the host plants and provide a better knowledge about the nutrition and growth of the plants. The present investigation was carried out in three sites to examine mycorrhizal colonization in twenty plants. Among the twenty plants, arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungal and dark septate endophytes (DSE) colonization was found in 18 and 11 species, respectively. Dual association of AM fungi and DSE were found in 10 plants. The presence of only vesicles and aseptate hyphae were observed in Alternanthera dentata and Bambusa vulgaris. The arbuscular mycorrhizal colonization (%) was highest recorded in Eupatorium odoratum. Root length with DSE fungal structures (%) was maximum in A. dentata. A total of 16 AM fungal species was isolated from the three soil samples. There were five, eleven and eight species of AM fungi were found from three sites belonging to the spore of Acaulospora, Ambispora, Diversispora, Funneliformis, Glomus, Paraglomus, Rhizophagus and Sclerocystis. This study revealed the wide spread occurrence of AM fungi and DSE fungal association in the studied ecosystem.