Propagation of Mycorrhizal Fungi and Their Strength in Plant Health Ameliorations

Arbuscular mycorrhizae (AM) fungi interact with plant roots in a symbiotic manner. These fungi serve well in the maintenance of soil fertility and crop health improvement. The current chapter entails soil sample collection, isolation, characterization, and enumeration of AM fungi and their mass multiplication. These procedures necessitate a skilled hand and high level of knowledge, and thus not much common. The current state of the art in inoculation, root colonization assessment, and massive propagation have been discussed. The techniques that are used for AM fungi production are slowly gaining attention and being popularized nowadays. Molecular approaches for the identification of any microorganisms, including AM fungi, are also gaining significant attention from the researchers. Some techniques like fluorescent antibody methodology, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and molecular quantification through PCR, qPCR technique, and Illumina MiSeq high-throughput DNA sequence-based analysis, have also been explained.