Molecular characterization of arbuscular mycorrhizal communities associated with Lathyrus cicera L. grown in northern Tunisia soils

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are obligate symbionts that form a mutualistic symbiosis with a wide variety of plant species including legumes. Lathyrus cicera (red pea), is an important annual legume crop cultivated in several drought-prone areas of the world. Limited information is available on AMF diversity associated with red pea and agricultural practices that promote AMF community richness. The article examines the influence of agricultural management practices on AMF species associated with red pea grown in northern Tunisia. Furthermore, we explored AMF communities associated with L. cicera among major soil types in the sub-humid agro-ecosystems of northern Tunisia. The focus was on the effects of environmental factors on the abundance and diversity of AMF communities in rhizospheric soils and root samples. MiSeq amplicon sequencing was used to identify AMF species colonizing the roots and rhizospheric soil of L. cicera. There were 435 amplicon sequence variants (ASVs) identified, representing 25 AMF virtual taxa (VTs) from 5 AMF genera: Glomus >> Claroideoglomus >> Diversipora > Paraglomus > Scutellospora. In summary, agricultural management practices had no impact on AMF colonization in root plants grown in soil under study. The redundancy analysis, however, revealed that soil properties such as salinity, available P and total N have an impact on the distribution and abundance of AMF, especially in Glomus spp.