ANNALS OF PLANT SCIENCES ISSN: 2287-688X OPEN ACCESS Original Research Article www.annalsofplantsciences.com * Corresponding Author: Dr. H. C. Lakshman, Professor and Former Chairman, P.G.Department of Studies in Botany, Karnatak University, Dharwad- 580 003, Karnataka, India. E-mail: dr.hclakshman@gmail.com http://dx.doi.org/10.21746/aps.2017.03.003 Page | 1590 Effect of AM fungus (Glomus macrocarpum) with additional phosphate fertilization on biomass yield nutrient uptake in two Basellaceae plants; Basella alba L. and Basella cordifolia L. Kamble S.S. 1 and H.C Lakshman 2 * 1 P.G. Department of studies in Botany, Shivaji University, Kolhapur – 416004, Maharashtra, India. 2 P.G. Department of studies in Botany, Karnataka University, Dharwad, Karnataka, India. Received: February 4, 2017; Accepted: February 21, 2017 Introduction Proper fertilizer application is an essential method to increase plant, production that can be used on infertile soils. Most of the Indian tropical soils lack required phosphorus to many types of plants (Nambiar, 2002). It has been well documented that Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are the members of Phycomycetes associated with most of the terrestrial plants play vital role in uptake and translocation of diffusion limited nutrients mainly 'P' there by promote plant growth (Koide et al., 2004, Lakshman, 2009). The beneficial effect of AM fungi had a special importance, for those plants having coarse and poorly branched root systems. Since AM fungi external hyphae can extend as much as 5-8cm away from the roots, absorb nutrients from a much larger soil volume than the absorption zone surrounding the non-mycorrhizal root system (Lakshman, 1996; Gai et al., 2006). And thus absorption of phosphate ions could possible through some beneficial micro symbionts that are associated with rhizospheric zones of numerous plants. It is Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi have associated symbolically almost all types of plants including medicinal plants. In many instances, when nutrients are exhausted from the soil, a balanced fertilizer will be necessity in order to maintain nutrient balance in mycorrhizal fungi especially important for the absorption of nutrients of low mobility in soil solution such as P, K, M, Zn, Fe and Cu etc. It was suggested that P is usually absorbed in the form of orthophosphate and transported actively through the much-branched hyphae as polyphosphate (Nye and Kirk, 1987; Vaast et al., 2006; Bagyaraj, 2006). The major transfer of 'P' from the AM fungi to the plants occurred in those roots colonized with Arbuscular mycorrhizal main components called arbuscules. And thus P transfer from the fungus to the host plants takes place in a process of interchange with carbon compound metabolites. It has been observed that, 80-85% of total applied P is not available to plants because of their inaccessibility, fixation and immobilization. In this context, many experiments have been proved that, AM fungal inoculation increase the recovery of phosphate fertilization from soil. Researches on AM fungi dependence of many plants have clearly demonstrated that tropical crops will not grow well in low P soils without an effective mycorrhizal association (Redhead, 1971; Rhodes and Gerdeman, 1978; Joner and Jakobsen, 1995). Since mycotrophic plants depend on AM fungal colonization when they grown under low external P conditions, their yield can be enhanced by increasing efficiency of Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, either by inoculation of more efficient fungal strains or by fungi through the use of agronomic practices. But, less report are available on phosphate fertilizer application on medicinal plants to know their effect along with mycorrhizal inoculation. The present study investigated the effects of the different levels of super phosphate and rock phosphate on two vegetable plants with and without inoculation of AM fungus (Glomus macrocarpum) was investigated. Materials and Methods The seeds of experimental plants (Basella alba and Basella cordifolia) were sown in 15×20 cm diameter earthen pots containing four kg of sterilized phosphorus deficient soil. The soil was mixed in 1:1 proportion (1 part of garden soil and 1 part of pure sand). The Physico-chemical characteristic of this soil was analyzed given in (Table. 1). The random black designed triplicate sets of pots were maintained with proper controls. Finally, three different levels of super phosphate and rock phosphate at the rate of Abstract: Inoculation of AMF (Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus) (Glomus macrocarpum (AMF) with additional, super phosphate and rock phosphate treatment showed varied results on Basella alba and Basella cordifolia. At 30 days interval, experimental plants have not exhibited any better growth or nutrient uptake in mycorrhizal plants nor non-mycorrhization plants. However, both the plants significantly showed higher growth, biomass production nutrients uptake in both shoot and root of mycorrhizal plants over non-mycorrhizal plants. When the plants of Basella alba treated with 3.0 mg rock phosphate/kg soil, with mycorrhizal inoculation. But, Basella cordifolia showed plants treated with 1.0 mg super phosphate/kg soil with mycorrhizal inoculation improved plant growth biomass. On contrast to this per cent of AM fungal colonization and spore number decreased with the increased dosage of Super phosphate than those received rock phosphate. Key words: Glomus macrocarpum; Basella alba L.; Basella cordifolia L.; Super phosphate and Rock phosphate.