Effect of BT cotton on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi infection under varied soil type

摘要

BT crops have increased rapidly worldwide in the past 11 years for economic, environmental and health benefits (Barwale et al., 2004). However, the ecological risks of BT transgenic crops were critically highlighted for potential adverse effects on agroecosystems, in particular, non-target effects on soil microorganisms (Icoz et al., 2008). Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF) are important soil microorganisms providing a range of benefits to the majority of crop plants in the agro ecosystem, worthy ofmonitoring for non-target effects of BT transgenic crops. These BT transgenic crops may affect AMF in many ways during their life with regard to the temporal-spatial relevance between the occurrence of BT proteins and fungal symbiotic development of AMF. This may lead to an unwelcome surprise with regard to specific abundance and diversity of AMF when BT transgenic crops are planted continuously. Interactions between AMF and BT transgenic crops at individual and community level are a new urgent soil ecological issue. Some evidence about BT transgenic crop effects on AMF was revealed by different researchers. Keeping in view the above points, the research has been designed to evaluate AMF infection under both BT and non BT system and varied soil type.