Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi occurring in vegetated sand dunes of Indian Thar Desert

The vegetation on the dunes are generally sparse due to poor rainfall, high wind velocity, sandy texture of soil with poor water holding capacity and nutrient deficiencies. The examination of periodically collected root and soil samples revealed that most of the Species growing on and around the sand dunes develop mycorrhizae of vesicular-arbuscular type under natural ecosystems. Perennating spores of the arbuscular - mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) belonging to genera Glomus, Gigaspora and Acaulospora were recovered from the mycorrhizosphere soil/root samples of Acacia jacquemontii, A. nilotica, A. senegal, Aerva persica, Aristida adscensionis, Calotropis procera, Capparis decidua, Cenchrus biflorus, C. ciliaris, C. preurii, C. setigerus, Crotolaria burhia, Lasiurus sindicus, Maytenus emarginatus, Panicum turgidum, Prosopis cineraria, Tephrosia purpurea and Zizyphus nummularia. The isolates of AMF symbionts were cultured in pots on the living roots of Cenchrus ciliaris and identified on the basis of developmental structures of the spores. Glomus fasciculatum invariably dominated over Glomus aggregatum, G. macrocarpum, Gigaspora gigantea and Acaulospora elegans.