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Abstract
Four P efficient and four P inefficient sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] genotypes were grown with viable and nonviable vesicular‐arbuscular mycorrhizal (VAM) [Glomus fasciculatum (Thaxter sensu Gerd.) Gerd. and Trappe] inocula to study VAM effects on sorghum growth and mineral element uptake. Sorghum plants infected with VAM had 14 times higher shoot and 13 times higher root dry matter yields than uninfected plants. Shoots of VAM infected plants had higher P, K, Mg, S, Ca, Mn, Fe, Cu, and Zn contents than shoots of uninfected plants. Infected sorghum plants utilized greater amounts of P to produce unit shoot dry matter than uninfected plants. Therefore, VAM infected sorghum plants were less efficient in P utilization than uninfected plants. Root length had high positive correlations with shoot P, K, Mg, S, Ca, Mn, Fe, Cu, and Zn contents. Higher P uptake of VAM infected sorghum plants was attributed to larger absorption surface areas because of root proliferation as well as to VAM hyphae external to the root. The observed VAM x genotype P efficiency interaction might explain why genotypes screened for P efficiency in VAM‐free media such as nutrient solutions might not show similar relative differences in P efficiency in a field situation where plants are infected by native VAM fungi.
Notes
Published as Paper No. 8118, Journal Series, Nebraska Agricultural Research Division, Lincoln, from Projects 12–095 and 12–113. Supported in part by a grant from the International Sorghum and Millet Cooperative Research Support Program (INTSORMIL).