Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Diversity in Two Different Regions in Saudi Arabia

Plant root endosymbiotic arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are an important functional group of soil microbes in most of the terrestrial ecosystems. Since the desert land is the major covering of Saudi Arabia, the association between AMF and desert plants needs more considerable attention because of their potential importance in agriculture, horticulture, ecology and biodiversity. This study aims to investigate the colonization, composition, diversity and favorable environmental conditions of Saudi Arabian desert habituated AMF in order to explore their agricultural, ecological and biotechnological potential. The total number of collected plants from the three studied areas was 14 plants, represented by 9 unique plants. Seven different plants were collected from Riyadh and Qassim regions. However, five plants (Rumex vesicarius, Echium rauwolfia, Anthemis deserti, Erucaria hispanica and Picris sp.) were collected from both Riyadh and Qassim regions. The most abundant mycorrhizal genus in the collected samples was Glomus as it was found associated with 7 plants collected from different regions with 5 different species. Collected plants from the two different regions showed difference in mycorrhizal colonization rates. The highest hyphal colonization percentage of 75.00% was found in Picris sp. collected from Qassim region followed by 70.00% in Picris sp. collected from Riyadh region. The highest vesicles colonization percentages of vesicles were found associated with Echium rauwolfia (36.13%) plant collected from Riyadh region.