Glomeromycota In vitro Collection (GINCO)

Provide the scientific community and industrial sectors with high-quality,
contaminant-free in vitro arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi

• News
• Presentation
  • > Organisation & staff
  • > Experts list
• Services
  • > Strain distribution
  • > Strain deposit
  • > Other services
  • > Price list
  • > General conditions
• Strain catalogue
  • > Cultivation techniques
• Contact

Mycorrhiza.be

Two international trainings on the in vitro culture of AM fungi are offered by the CESAMM/GINCO teams.

For more information, visit: International trainings website

External links:

Training on in vitro culture of AMF organised by the CESAMM

Reference book:

In Vitro Culture of Mycorrhizas

Classical methodology

The most commonly used method to propagate AMF remains the pot cultivation. However, this method:

• is time and space consuming;
• cannot guarantee the absence of undesirable contaminants;
• requires regular assessment of viability and monospecificity of inoculum;
• complicates the acquisition of quality cultures.

In vitro culture

When grown on a suitable synthetic growth medium in association with excised roots, AMF cultures can be maintained pure and viable for long term periods.

The methodologies commonly used to grow AMF in GINCO are fully described by Cranenbrouck et al. (methodologies for in vitro cultivation of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi with root organs) In: Declerck S., Strullu D.G. and Fortin J.A. (Eds), In Vitro Culture of Mycorrhizas, to be published in Springer-Verlag, end March 2005.

Advantages of the in vitro culture of AMF
Reliability of cultures	contaminant free cultures throughout life cycle.
Monospecificity of fungal inoculum	no cross contamination with other Glomeromycota throughout life cycle.
Non-destructive monitoring	morphological observations conducted without disturbance of the intimate coexistence of host roots and AMF during whole life cycle.
Efficient system for	physiological studies: culture conditions are standardized thus facilitating studies on the impact of environmental factors; molecular and biochemical studies: optimal conditions due to the absence of undesirable contaminants; mass-inoculum production: feasible through regular subculture.
Lower space and time requirements	produced under growth chamber controlled conditions.
Easy quality control and fungal growth quantification	important for high scale production of both in vivo and in vitro propagation.

Inconvenients related to the in vitro culture of AMF compared to pot cultures
Sterile environment	high precaution (controlled atmosphere, laminar flow hood, …) are needed to succeed.
Technical training	may be necessary to acquire expertise. Training on in vitro culture of AMF is organised by the Mycorhizal Research Team (UCL).
Low sporulation levels for some species	make them less distributable or distributable at a prohibitive price.
Number of available strains	several strains are cultivated but few distributed.
Continuous cultivation	difficulty to maintain some strains under continuous growth.
Physiological and genetic characters	potential loss of strains characters due to successive transfers.

Perspectives

With the availability for the scientific and the industry communities of high quality and contaminant-free AMF inocula, very innovative research and development possibilities, up to now neglected, will be greatly facilitated:

• by much easier procedures for the maintenance of clean and reliable fungal culture;
• by a much better control of inoculum quality and effectiveness;
• by access to an experimental system that allows refined physiological and molecular investigations up to large-scale inoculum production.

References

Cranenbrouck S., Voets L., Bivort C., Strullu D. G. and Declerck S., Methodologies for in vitro cultivation of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. In: Declerck S., Strullu D.G. and Fortin A.(eds.), In Vitro Culture of Mycorrhizas, to be published in Srpinger Verlag, end March 2005.

Published Glomeromycota species cultivated in vitro on root organs (Cranenbrouck et al.)

Caption:

*: non-sporulating species
?: identification to be confirmed

Gigasporaceae (non producing vesicles)
G. gigantea (Nicolson & Gerd.) Gerd. & Trappe	Gadkar et al., 1997 Mosse, 1988
G. margarita Becker & Hall	Miller-Wideman and Watrud, 1984 Gadkar et al., 1997 Karandashov et al., 1999
G. rosea Nicolson & Schenck	Bécard and Fortin, 1988, 1992 Diop et al., 1992
S. reticulata (Koske, Miller, Walker) Walker & Sanders	de Souza and Declerck, 2003

Acaulosporaceae (producing vesicle)
A. rehmii Sieverding & Toro	Declerck and Dalpé, 2002

Glomaceae (producing vesicles)
G. caledonium (Nicolson & Gerd.) Trappe & Gerd.	Karandashov et al., 1999, 2000
G. cerebriforme McGee	Samson et al., 2000
G. clarum Nicolson & Schenck	de Souza and Berbara, 1999
G. constrictum Trappe	Mathur and Vyas, 1999
G. deserticola Trappe, Bloss & Menge	Mathur and Vyas, 1995
G. etunicatum Becker & Gerd.	Pawlowska et al., 1999
G. fasciculatum (Thaxter sensu Gerd.) Gerd.&Trappe emend. Walker & Koske	Strullu an Romand, 1986 Declerck et al., 1998
*G. fistulosum Skou & Jakobson	Nuutila et al., 1995
G. intraradices Schenck & Smith	Strullu and Romand, 1987 Chabot et al., 1992 Diop et al., 1994a, b St-Arnaud et al., 1996 Karandashov et al., 1999 Declerck et al., 1998 Boisson-Denier et al., 2001 Douds, 2002
G. macrocarpum Tulasne &Tulasne	Declerck et al., 1998
*G. mosseae (Nicolson & Gerd.) Gerd. & Trappe	Mosse and Hepper, 1975 Mugnier and Mosse, 1987 Karandashov et al., 1999 Douds, 1997 Raman et al., 2001
G. proliferum Dalpé & Declerck	Declerck et al., 2000
G. versiforme (Karsten) Berch	Diop et al., 1994 Declerck et al., 1998

Additionnal unpublished AMF species cultivated in vitro

Gigasporaceae (non producing vesicles)
Gigaspora albida Schenck & Smith	Wu C-G (pers. comm.)
*Scutellospora castanea Walker	Declerck S (pers. comm.)
S. nigra (Redhead) Walker & Sanders	Wu C-G (pers. comm.)

Acaulosporaceae (producing vesicle)
*Acaulospora Laevis Gerd. & Trappe	Declerck S (pers. comm.)
A. morrowae Spain & Schenck	Wu C-G (pers. Comm.)

Glomaceae (producing vesicles)
Glomus aggregatum Schenck &Smith emend. Koske	Moutoglis P (pers.comm.)
?G. lamellosum Dalpé, Koske & Tews	Dalpé Y (pers. comm.)
Glomus sp.	Declerck S (pers. Comm.) Dalpé Y (pers. comm.)
Sclerocystis sinuosa (Gerd.& Bakshi) Almeida & Schenck	Wu C-G (pers.comm.)