Morphological characterization and diversity of endomycorrhizae in the rhizosphere of Carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua) in Morocco

ABSTRACT

The diversity of mycorrhizal fungi in the rhizosphere of the carob tree (Ceratonia siliqua) was studied in five regions of Morocco: Taroudant, Khénifra, Afourar, Nador and Ksiba. Microscopic examination of the carob tree soil, collected from the studied areas, revealed the presence of 31 AM fungal species belonging to six genera Glomus (16 species), Acaulospora (7 species), Scutellospora (4 species), Gigaspora (2 species), Entrophospora and Pacispora (one species each). The genus Glomus is the most abundant with a distribution percentage of 93%. Species richness varies between 13 and 18 species. All the encountered species were morphologically characterized basing on: shape, color, average size of the spore and its wall, spore surface and size of the hyphae. The diversity of AM fungi in different ecological studied zones varies from one site to another, it is higher in Taroudant site, the Shannon-Wiener index H ' is in the order of 2.78 and the index of Margalef IM 3.6. Furthermore, the similarity index of Jaccard shows a strong similarity between the Taroudant site and that of Afourar.

Keywords: Ceratonia siliqua, endomycorrhizae, Carob tree, Morocco, Fungi.

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