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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Fungal Biol.
Sec. Fungi-Plant Interactions
Volume 5 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/ffunb.2024.1448156

Mycorrhizal inoculation and fertilizer microdosing interactions in pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) under greenhouse conditions

Provisionally accepted
Malick NDIAYE Malick NDIAYE 1,2*Alain Mollier Alain Mollier 3Adama DIOUF Adama DIOUF 1Tahir A. DIOP Tahir A. DIOP 4
  • 1 Faculté des Sciences et Techniques, Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar, Senegal
  • 2 Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar, Senegal
  • 3 INRAE ​​Nouvelle-Aquitaine Bordeaux, Bordeaux, Aquitaine, France
  • 4 Universite Amadou Mahtar Mbow, Dakar, Dakar, Senegal

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Soil fertility is a major constraint to agricultural development in the Sahel region of Africa. One alternative to reducing the use of mineral fertilizers is to partially replace them with microbes that promote nutrition and growth, such as arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). Mineral fertilizer microdosing is a technique developed to enhance fertilizer efficiency and encourage smallholder farmers to adopt higher mineral fertilizer application. A pot experiment was set up to study the effects of AMF inoculation on the mineral nutrition of pearl millet under mineral fertilizer microdosing conditions. The experimental set-up followed a randomized complete block design with five replicates. The treatments tested on millet were an absolute control and eight microdoses derived from the combination of three doses of 15-10-10 (NPK) mineral fertilizer (2 g, 3 g, and 5 g per pot), three doses of urea (U) (1 g, 2 g, and 3 g per pot), and three doses of organic manure (OM) (200 g, 400 g, and 600 g), combined with and without AMF (Rhizophagus irregularis and Rhizophagus aggregatum). The parameters studied were growth, root colonization by AMF, and mineral nutrition. Plant height, stem diameter, root dry biomass, and percentage of root mycorrhization were measured. The results revealed a significant effect of the fertilizers on the growth of pearl millet compared to the control. AMF and OM treatments resulted in the highest biomass production. AMF combined with microdoses of NPK improved N and Ca concentrations, while their combination with organic matter mainly improved the K concentration. Combining AMF with microdosed NPK and compost enhanced Zn and Ni concentrations. Root colonization varied from 0.55 to 56.4%. This investigation highlights the positive effects of AMF inoculation on nutrient uptake efficiency when combined with microdosing fertilization.

    Keywords: arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, pearl millet, mineral nutrient, Microdosing fertilizer, Manure

    Received: 12 Jun 2024; Accepted: 01 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 NDIAYE, Mollier, DIOUF and DIOP. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Malick NDIAYE, Faculté des Sciences et Techniques, Cheikh Anta Diop University, Dakar, Senegal

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.