Abstract:
Understanding the community composition and diversity of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi
(AMF) in an agricultural ecosystem is important for exploiting their potential in sustainable crop
production. In this study, we described the genetic diversity and community structure of indigenous
AMF in rain-fed rice cultivars across six di erent regions in Ghana. The morphological and molecular
analyses revealed a total of 15 di erent AMF genera isolated from rice roots. Rhizophagus and Glomus
were observed to be predominant in all regions except the Ashanti region, which was dominated by
the genera Scutellospora and Acaulospora. A comparison of AMF diversity among the agroecological
zones revealed that Guinea Savannah had the highest diversity. Permutational Multivariate Analysis
of Variance (PERMANOVA) analysis indicated that the available phosphorus (AP) in the soil was the
principal determining factor for shaping the AMF community structure (p < 0.05). We report, for the
first time, AMF diversity and community structure in rice roots and how communities are a ected by
the chemical properties of soil from di erent locations in Ghana.
