The sporulation and occurrence of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) was evaluated in the coffee trees (Coffea arabica L.) and Crotalaria breviflora DC. rhizosphere and roots. C. breviflora was intercropped for green manure of the coffee plants. Samples of rhizosphere soil and roots were collected in July of 1997 in a long-time experiment localized at the Instituto Agronômico do Paraná (IAPAR), in Mirasselva, PR, Brazil. The AMF diversity was determined through the morphologic identification of spores, the AMF occurrence frequency by the direct counting of spores in the soil, and the root colonization. To identify AMF in coffee roots, DNA from spores collected in the rhizosphere and from colonized coffee roots was extracted and used for PCR (Polimerase chain reaction) with ITS (Internal transcribed spacer) primers, comparing the obtained bands. The legume intercropping cultivation increased the spores concentration of AMF in the soil. Coffee and C. breviflora plants stimulated populations of different AMF in their rhizospheres. Scutellospora spp. and Gigaspora spp. were more abundant at the legume rhizosphere. Acaulospora spp. occurred more often in coffee plant rhizospheres. Using molecular techniques, it was possible to characterize AMF in the rhizosphere and in the colonized roots of the coffee plants. Scutellospora gilmorei, of common occurrence in coffee plants and C. breviflora, was not found colonizing the roots of coffee plants. Molecular techiniques can be of great help in the study of AM fungal dynamics in the field.
Coffea arabica; Crotalaria breviflora; plant soil relations; rhizosphere; symbionts; fungi
