Abstract

HERRERA MONROY, Sonia; CASTRO BRINDIS, Rogelio; PEREZ MORENO, Jesús  and  VALDES VELARDE, Eduardo. Endomycorrhizal diversity in coffee plants (Coffea arabica L.) infected with rust (Hemileia vastatrix). Nova scientia [online]. 2019, vol.11, n.22, pp.102-123. ISSN 2007-0705.  https://doi.org/10.21640/ns.v11i22.1642.

Coffee (Coffea arabica L.) is one of the most important agricultural products in the world, since more than 56 countries are dedicated to its cultivation and it is the main agricultural commodity since the period 1962-1989 and coffee orange rust (Hemileia vastatrix Berkeley & Broome) is the most devastating disease for this crop. In Central America, the losses caused by this pathogen were up to 50% in the 2011-2012 production cycle. Coffee production in the state of Veracruz decreased by 8% since 2011 due to rust infestations, consequently research has been carried out on beneficial microorganisms that provide tolerance to the pathogen, whose obtaining and application does not represent a risk of deterioration of the soil resource. Therefore, the endomycorrhizal meet these requirements, however it is necessary to know the diversity and conditions of association with the agricultural species of interest so that the management is effective. The objective was to characterize endomycorrhic populations present in coffee plants (C. arabica L.) Typica variety with and without signs of rust infection in Ixhuatlán del café, Veracruz. We identified 37 species that correspond to 14 genera of endomycorrhizal, being the most common Acaulospora and Rhizophagus, the latter being the most frequent in plants without signs of rust infection. A higher percentage of root colonization and spore density was also found in plants without signs of infection (7.70% and 661.68 spores / 100 g of soil, respectively) but the Shannon (H) diversity index and the Simpson (D) does not indicate that the endomycorrhizal populations found are diverse. These results show that the plants that interact in symbiosis with mycorrhiza are able to tolerate better the biotic and abiotic stress, besides the prevalence of certain endomycorrhizal genera in coffee plants with particular physiological characteristics gives a guideline to deepen the study of the established differential symbiosis between plants and microorganisms.

Keywords : Coffea arabica L.; Hemileia vastatrix; biodiversity; community; endomycorrhizal.