Characterization of vesicular arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi from Serengeti national park, Tanzania

Vesicular Arbuscular Mycorrhizal (VAM) fungi constitute an important component of the soil microbial community and are extremely successful fungi that form mutualistic symbioses with about two thirds of all plant species. The objective of this study was to characterize the Vesicular Arbuscular Mycorrhizal (VAM) fungi from different land use types in Serengeti National Park (SNP) Tanzania, and assess the influence of the land use types on their diversity and distribution patterns. Roots from different 81 plant species were collected from different sites based on major land use types including indigenous woodland, natural grasslands and cropland. Four transects 50 m away from each other and 25 m away from the road were laid for sampling. The roots were cut into pieces, stained and treated with 1.79 M KOH, trypan blue dye, 0.1 M HCL, acidic glycerol solution and de-stained overnight using lactic acid glycerol before mounted for microscopic observation. The result revealed that VAM fungi species belonging to four genera Acaulospora, Glomus, Gigaspora and Scutellospora were found in different land use system in SNP. Species in the genus Scutellospora were dominant followed by species in Glomus and Acaulospora while the least were from Gigaspora. This difference in species dominance may be due to differences in soil parameters such as soil pH which ranged from 5.59-7.49 in different land use types. With respect to the morphotypes, the examined VAM fungi in SNP were found to exhibit two morphotypes; the Arum and Paris type. Generally the Arum was the dominating morphotype comprising of 57% followed by the Paris which constituted 40% while the undifferentiated morphotype constituted 3%. Noticeably, the Paris-type was more appropriate for slow growing plants dominating in the grassland with scarce and less vegetation while the Arum were dominant in the woodland constituting the fast growing vegetation. This is the first study on the VAM of SNP which uses morphological characterization to identify the taxa to the genus level. The study thus recommends more study using molecular to ascertain the taxa to the species level.