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Characterizing variation in mycorrhiza effect among diverse plant varieties

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Abstract

Exploitation of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi may be an important approach for development of reduced-input agriculture. We discuss the use of linear models to analyze variation in mycorrhiza response among diverse plant varieties in order to assess the value of mycorrhizas. Our approach allows elimination of variation linked to differences in plant performance in the absence of mycorrhizas and the selection of plant lines that might harbor genetic variation of use to improve the mycorrhizal symbiosis in agriculture. We illustrate our approach by applying it to previously published and to novel data. We suggest that in dealing with a relative trait such as mycorrhiza effect, the choice of measure used to quantify the trait greatly affects interpretation. In the plant populations under consideration, we find evidence for a greater potential to increase mycorrhiza benefit than previously suggested.

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Abbreviations

NC:

Performance of non-mycorrhizal plants

M :

Performance of mycorrhizal plants

R :

Absolute responsiveness

R′ :

Relative responsiveness, relative to NC

μ (X):

Mean of X

σ2 (X):

Variance of X

σ (X, Y):

Covariance of X and Y

i :

Intercept of regression line

a :

Slope of regression line

δ :

Deviation from regression line

a M :

Slope of the regression line of M against NC

a R :

Slope of the regression line of R against NC

i M :

Intercept of the regression line of M against NC

i R :

Intercept of the regression line of R against NC

r 2 :

Coefficient of determination

r 2 M :

Coefficient of determination of M against NC

r 2 R :

Coefficient of determination of R against NC

m :

Asymptote of a logistic dose–response curve

n :

y-axis intercept of a logistic dose–response curve

f :

Position of the inflection point of a logistic dose–response curve

d :

Mycorrhiza dependence (see Janos 2007) for 15% of a logistic dose–response curve asymptote

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Acknowledgments

We thank Tom Juenger (University of Texas), Jerome Goudet (University of Lausanne), and anonymous reviewers for helpful comments during preparation of this manuscript, Shawn Kaeppler (University of Wisconsin) for providing maize seed, and Blaise Tissot (University of Lausanne) for help with plant growth. R.S. thanks César Sawers for additional assistance. This work was supported by Swiss National Science Foundation grant PP00A–110874 to R.S. and U.P. and a European COST action 870 grant to M. G.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Molecular Biology, University of Lausanne, Biophore Building, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Ruairidh J. H. Sawers, Mesfin N. Gebreselassie & Uta Paszkowski

  2. Department of Biology, University of Miami, P.O. Box 249118, Coral Gables, FL, 33124, USA

    David P. Janos

Authors
  1. Ruairidh J. H. Sawers
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  2. Mesfin N. Gebreselassie
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  3. David P. Janos
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  4. Uta Paszkowski
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ruairidh J. H. Sawers.

Additional information

Communicated by E. Guiderdoni.

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Table S1, Table S2, Table S3 (DOC 106 kb)

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Sawers, R.J.H., Gebreselassie, M.N., Janos, D.P. et al. Characterizing variation in mycorrhiza effect among diverse plant varieties. Theor Appl Genet 120, 1029–1039 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00122-009-1231-y

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