Conventional agricultural practices are now being replaced world over with modern practices for higher crop yields. For the same reason, the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides has taken a big boost in agricultural sector. However, the excessive use of these synthetic chemicals is causing serious environmental and health threats. Therefore researchers are exploring environment-friendly approaches of plant protection that could minimize the side effects associated with the use of pesticides. It has been long known that arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi help plants by supplying them with minerals and protecting them against soil pathogens and parasitic nematodes. To achive this, they use different protection mechanisms such as altered root morphology, physiological and biochemical changes, competition for space and nutrients and activation of systemical resistance. Because of this and many other important fuctions, AM fungi could be used in sustainable agriculture as biofertilizers and bioprotectants.
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