Wheat landraces with low mycorrhizing ability at field respond differently to inoculation with artificial or indigenous arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities

Conventional farming is not sustainable in a context of climate change and of dramatic reductions in natural resource stocks worldwide. A change of paradigm towards more sustainable farming is necessary, based on the preservation and management of ecosystem services. The soil is a reservoir of organisms beneficial for plant production. Among these are arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Nevertheless, the response of plants – especially cereal landraces – to mycorrhization, and the effect of domestication on the response to mycorrhization are controversial. In the present paper we investigated the response of four wheat landraces with a low mycorrhizogenous ability to inoculation with the indigenous arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi community or an artificial community in greenhouse and field conditions. We showed that the community of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi can have an effect on yield, even in wheat landraces with a low mycorrhizogenous ability. We also highlighted the importance to properly choose the criteria (phenotypic criteria as root and shoot biomasses versus quality criteria as grain quality) used to measure this possible gain.