Author(s)

Katsunori Isobe, Kohei Maruyama, Singo Nagai, Masao Higo, Tomiya Maekawa, Gaku Mizonobe, Rhae A. Drijber, Ryuichi Ishii

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The objectives of this study were to determine arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) community structure in colonized roots of soybean cultivated from Kanagawa and Hokkaido in Japan and to relate the community structure to environmental conditions, which included soil type, preceding crops, and soil chemical properties. The average number of AMF OTU (operational taxonomic unit) colonizing soybean roots collected from Kanagawa and Hokkaido was 11.2 and 5.8, respectively, a significant difference. Moreover, AMF from the family Gigasporasera was not identified in soybean roots collected from Hokkaido, suggesting that AMF in the family Gigasporasea is absent or rare in the soybean fields of sampled in Hokkaido. We postulate that the soil type, preceding crops or soil chemical properties are not the underlying factor differentiating AMF community structure colonizing in soybean roots between Kanagawa and Hokkaido. Instead we conclude that temperature and phosphate absorption coefficient are the determining factors of AMF OTU in this study.

AM Fungi, Colonization, Community Structure, Soybean

K. Isobe, K. Maruyama, S. Nagai, M. Higo, T. Maekawa, G. Mizonobe, R. Drijber and R. Ishii, "Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungal Community Structure in Soybean Roots: Comparison between Kanagawa and Hokkaido, Japan," Advances in Microbiology, Vol. 1 No. 1, 2011, pp. 13-22. doi: 10.4236/aim.2011.11003.