Background:

Volunteer plants have been considered as a problem in crop areas as a possible disease reservoir, but also of microorganism diversity. Mycotrophic plants, such as maize may allow preserving mycorrhizal inoculum. The ecological preservation area La Uba, in Guasave, Sinaloa, is a relictual area of vegetation of low deciduous forest and studies of its soil microbiota are scarce. This region has been recently converted to agricultural soils. This is why we studied a contiguous transition zone.

Objective:

To establish the diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) present in the rhizosphere and roots of volunteer maize plants in the transition zone contiguous to La Uba.

Methods:

Volunteer maize roots and soil were collected once in between agricultural cycles in a transition zone. Genomic DNA was extracted from AMF colonized maize roots and soil spores; the ITS region of the ribosomal DNA was amplified and massively sequenced.

Results and conclusions:

A total of twelve species of AMF were found, belonging to the genera Glomus, Rhizophagus, Funneliformis y Gigaspora.; Glomus was the most abundant genus. Glomus indicum was reported for the first time in Mexico. Volunteer maize plants may assist in conserving AMF inoculum in crop soils.

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