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Strigolactones pp 157–177Cite as

Controlled Assays for Phenotyping the Effects of Strigolactone-Like Molecules on Arbuscular Mycorrhiza Development

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Part of the book series: Methods in Molecular Biology ((MIMB,volume 2309))

Abstract

Arbuscular mycorrhiza is an ancient symbiosis between most land plants and fungi of the Glomeromycotina, in which the fungi provide mineral nutrients to the plant in exchange for photosynthetically fixed organic carbon. Strigolactones are important signals promoting this symbiosis, as they are exuded by plant roots into the rhizosphere to stimulate activity of the fungi. In addition, the plant karrikin signaling pathway is required for root colonization. Understanding the molecular mechanisms underpinning root colonization by AM fungi, requires the use of plant mutants as well as treatments with different environmental conditions or signaling compounds in standardized cocultivation systems to allow for reproducible root colonization phenotypes. Here we describe how we set up and quantify arbuscular mycorrhiza in the model plants Lotus japonicus and Brachypodium distachyon under controlled conditions. We illustrate a setup for open pot culture as well as for closed plant tissue culture (PTC) containers, for plant-fungal cocultivation in sterile conditions. Furthermore, we explain how to harvest, store, stain, and image AM roots for phenotyping and quantification of different AM structures.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Laleh Torabi for the illustration of AM colonization (Fig. 1) and Philipp Chapman for excellent technical support in the establishment of the AM culture in PTC containers. ST and JAVA were supported by the Emmy Noether program (GU1423/1-1) of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) to CG. AK was supported by the Collaborative Research Center SFB924 “Molecular Mechanisms Regulating Yield and Yield Stability in Plants” (subproject B03: GU1423/2-1) of the DFG to CG. KV was supported by a doctoral student fellowship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Plant Genetics, TUM School of Life Sciences Weihenstephan, Technical University of Munich (TUM), Freising, Germany

    Salar Torabi, Kartikye Varshney, José A. Villaécija-Aguilar, Andreas Keymer & Caroline Gutjahr

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  1. Salar Torabi
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  2. Kartikye Varshney
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  3. José A. Villaécija-Aguilar
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  4. Andreas Keymer
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  5. Caroline Gutjahr
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Correspondence to Caroline Gutjahr .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemistry, University of Turin, Turin, Italy

    Cristina Prandi

  2. DISAFA-PlantStressLab, University of Turin, Grugliasco, Italy

    Francesca Cardinale

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Torabi, S., Varshney, K., Villaécija-Aguilar, J.A., Keymer, A., Gutjahr, C. (2021). Controlled Assays for Phenotyping the Effects of Strigolactone-Like Molecules on Arbuscular Mycorrhiza Development. In: Prandi, C., Cardinale, F. (eds) Strigolactones. Methods in Molecular Biology, vol 2309. Humana, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1429-7_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-1429-7_13

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  • Publisher Name: Humana, New York, NY

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-0716-1428-0

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-0716-1429-7

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