Mycorrhizas
Concepción Azcón-Aguilar (PI)
Professor
Soil Microbiology and Symbiotic Systems, Estación Experimental del Zaidín, CSIC, Granada, Spain
Other group members
Research lines
- Chemical communication between plants and mycorrhizal fungi: Molecular signaling in the rhizosphere during the early stages of mycorrhizal colonization (López y Pozo)
- Mechanisms involved in nutrient transport processes in mycorrhizal symbioses and in the tolerance of mycorrhizal plants to heavy metals. Study of the transporters of mycorrhizal fungi and the regulation of plant transporters by the establishment of mycorrhizas (Ferrol)
- Mycorrhizas and protection against osmotic stresses: Physiological and molecular mechanisms underlying the tolerance of mycorrhizal plants to drought and salinity. Regulation of aquaporins by mycorrhizal fungi (Ruiz and Aroca)
- Mycorrhizas and protection against biotic stresses: Priming of plant defenses by beneficial microbes and induction of resistance against pest and pathogens (Pozo and López)
- Potential of arbuscular mycorrhizas to increase the tolerance / resilience of plants to stresses associated with climate change (tenperature and CO2) (Ferrol, Azcón and Alguacil)
- Ecology of mycorrhizal fungi: Diversity of mycorrhizal fungi in natural communities. Networks of ecological plant-fungus interactions in the rhizosphere and in the phyllosphere, and their implication in the recruitment dynamics of natural communities of Mediterranean forest (Garrido and Azcón)
- Interactions of mycorrhizal fungi with other beneficial microorganisms. Mechanisms underlying the beneficial effects (Aroca and Alguacil)
Representative publications
- Perea AJ, Garrido JL, Fedriani JM, Rey PJ, Alcántara JM (2020) Pathogen life-cycle leaves footprint on the spatial distribution of recruitment of their host plants. Fungal Ecol 47: 100974 (doi: 10.1016/j.funeco.2020.100974).
- Gamir J, Torres-Vera R, Rial C, Berrio E, Campos PM, Varela RM, Macías FA, Pozo MJ, Flors V, López-Ráez JA (2020) Exogenous strigolactones impact metabolic profiles and phosphate starvation signalling in roots. Plant, Cell Environ 43: 1655-1668.
- Hontoria C, García-Gonzalez I, Quemada M, Roldan A, Alguacil MM (2019) The cover crop determines the AMF community composition in soil and in roots of maize after a ten-year continuous crop rotation. Sci Total Environ 660: 913-922.
- Alcántara JM, Garrido JL, Montesinos-Navarro A, Rey PJ, Valiente-Banuet A, Verdu M (2019) Unifying facilitation and recruitment networks. J Veget Sci 30: 1239-1249.
- Alguacil MM, Díaz G, Torres P, Rodríguez-Caballero G, Roldan A (2019) Host identity and functional traits determine the community composition of the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in facultative epiphytic plant species. Fungal Ecol 39: 307-315.
- Ferrol N, Azcón-Aguilar C, Pérez-Tienda J (2019) Arbuscular mycorrhizas as key players in sustainable plant phosphorus acquisition: An overview on the mechanisms involved. Plant Sci 280: 441-447.
- Quiroga G, Erice G, Ding L, Chaumont,F, Aroca R, Ruiz-Lozano JM (2019) The arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis regulates aquaporins activity and improves root cell water permeability in maize plants subjected to water stress. Plant Cell Environ 42: 2274-2290.
- Rivero J, Álvarez D, Flors V, Azcón-Aguilar C, Pozo MJ (2018) Root metabolic plasticity underlie functional diversity in mycorrhiza-enhanced stress tolerance in tomato. New Phytol 220: 1322–1336.
- Sánchez-Romera B, Calvo-Polanco M, Ruiz-Lozano JM, Zamarreño AM, Arbona V, Garcia-Mina JM, Gomez-Cadenas A, Aroca R (2018). Involvement of the def-1 mutation in the response of tomato plants to arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis under well-watered and drought conditions. Plant Cell Physiol 59: 248-261.
- Tamayo E, Knight SAB, Valderas A, Dancis A, Ferrol N (2018) The arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Rhizophagus irregularis uses a reductive iron assimilation pathway for high-affinity iron uptake. Environ Microbiol 20: 1857-1872.
- Erice G, Ruiz-Lozano JM, Zamarreño AM, García-Mina JM, Aroca R (2017) Transcriptomic analysis reveals the importance of JA-Ile turnover in the response of Arabidopsis plants to plant growth promoting rhizobacteria and salinity. Environ Exp Bot 143: 10-19.
- López-Ráez JA, Shirasu K, Foo E (2017) Strigolactones in plant interactions with beneficial and detrimental organisms: the Yin and Yang. Trends Plant Sci 22: 527-537.
- López-García A, Varela-Cervero S, Vaasar M, Öpik M, Barea JM, Azcón-Aguilar C (2017). Plant traits determine the phylogenetic structure of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities. Mol Ecol 26: 6948-6959.
- Ferrol N, Tamayo E, Vargas P (2016) The heavy metal paradox in arbuscular mycorrhizas: from mechanisms to biotechnological applications. J Exp Bot 67: 6253-6265.
- Ruiz-Lozano JM, Aroca R, Zamarreño AM, Molina S, Andreo-Jimenez B, Porcel R, García-Mina JM, Ruyter-Spira C, López-Ráez JA (2016) Arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis induces strigolactone biosynthesis under drought and improves drought tolerance in lettuce and tomato. Plant Cell Environ 39: 441-452.
- Pozo MJ, López-Ráez JA, Azcón-Aguilar C, García-Garrido JM (2015). Phytohormones as integrators of environmental signals in the regulation of mycorrhizal symbioses. New Phytol 205: 1431-1436.
Grants
- Alguacil MM (PI) (2020-2022) Valorization of Mediterranean small-scale FARMs by cropping wild unexploited species (VALUEFARM). Ministry of Science and Innovation. Proyecto PRIMA (PCI2020-112091).
- Ferrol N (PI), Azcón-Aguilar C (co-PI) (2019-2021) Hongos micorrícico-arbusculares como herramientas biotecnológicas para incrementar la resiliencia de las plantas al cambio climático. Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. RTI2018-098756-B-I00.
- Aroca R (IP), Ruíz-Lozano JM (co-PI) (2018-2021) Regulación de las características hidráulicas de la raíz mediada por acuaporinas, hormonas vegetales y microorganismos beneficiosos del suelo. Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. AGL2017-88341-R.
- Pozo MJ (PI), López-Ráez JA (co-PI) (2019-2021) Resistencia inducida por micorrizas: conectando conocimiento básico con aplicaciones. Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. RTI2018-094350-B-C31.
- Alcántara J (PI), Garrido JL (Co-IP) (2019-2021) Redes de reemplazamiento en bosques: Variación ecogeográfica e influencia de las comunidades de hongos de la filosfera y de las interacciones planta-suelo. Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. PGC2018-100966-B-100.
- Thure Hauser (Coordinator, Pozo MJ (PI CSIC) (2017-2020) Microbe-induced Resistance to Agricultural Pests (MiRA). H2020-MSCA-ITN 2017. European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme-Marie Sklodowska-Curie Grant.
Relevant methods
- Methodologies to study arbuscular mycorrhizas
- In vivo and in vitro culture of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and maintenance of their collections
- Bioinformatic methodologies for the analysis of DNA-metabarcoding data of fungi in the rhizosphere and phyllosphere
- Statistical and mathematical methodologies for analysis of complex networks of ecological interactions between fungi and plants
Collaborations with other national and international research groups
- Julio Alcántara (Universidad Jaén) – Garrido & Azcón
- Ana Rincón (Instituto de Ciencias Agrarias, CSIC, Madrid) – Azcón & Garrido
- José María García-Mina, Angel Zamarreño (Universidad de Navarra) – Aroca & Ruiz
- Susana Redondo, Enrique Mateos (Universidad de Sevilla) – Ruiz & Aroca
- Micaela Carvajal (CEBAS-CSIC, Murcia) – Ruiz & Aroca
- Francois Chaumont (Universidad Católica de Lovaina, Bélgica) – Ruiz & Aroca
- Raffaella Balestrini (Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection, CNR, Turín, Italia) – Ruiz & Aroca
- Hilda Pedranzani (Universidad de San Luis, Argentina) – Ruiz & Aroca
- Marcel van der Heijden, Klaus Schlaeppi (Institute for Sustainability Sciences, Agroscope, Zürich, Suiza) – Alguacil
- Natalia Requena (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Alemania) – Ferrol
- Manuela Giovannetti (Universitá di Pisa, Pisa, Italia) – Ferrol
- Luisa Lanfranco (Universitá degli Studi di Torino, Turin, Italia) – Ferrol
- Giulia de Lorenzo (Universidad de la Sapienza, Roma, Italia) – Pozo
- Kristina Gruden (National Institute of Biology, Ljubljana, Eslovenia) – Pozo
- Alison Bennet (Ohio State University, EEUU) – Pozo
- Francisco Macías (Universidad de Cádiz) – López
- Martina Janoušková (Institute of Botany, Academia Checa de Ciencias, República Checa) – López
- Victor Flors (Universidad Jaume I, Castellón) – Pozo & López
- Salvador Herrero (Universidad de Valencia) – Pozo & López
- Mª de la Luz Mora, Fernando Borie, Pablo Cornejo, Rolando Demanet (Universidad de la Frontera, Chile) – Ferrol, López, Azcón & Aroca
