#rhizosphere

Did you know the area surrounding plant roots have their own ecosystem⁉️

This zone, called the RHIZOSHPERE, is where roots meet soil, and an entire microscopic world comes to life. 🦠✨️

Here, plant roots release sugars and organic compounds, attracting a diverse community of microbes—bacteria, fungi, and other organisms. These microbes help plants absorb nutrients, improve soil structure, and even protect against pests and diseases. It’s like a symbiotic relationship party underground! 🎉🥳

SOIL SOIL

DIRT DIRT

WORM WORM

Soil contributes to the human gut microbiome – it was essential in the evolution of the human gut microbiome and it is a major inoculant and provider of beneficial gut microorganisms. In particular, there are functional similarities between the soil rhizosphere and the human intestine. In recent decades, however, contact with soil has largely been reduced, which together with a modern lifestyle and nutrition has led to the depletion of the gut microbiome with adverse effects to human health.

Journey to the Microcosmos- The Micro World Right Under Your Feet

Images Originally captured by Jam’s Germs

What’s the function of Mycorrhiza?

Expand the nutrient absorption surface of plants

The roots of plants are important organs for plants to absorb water and other nutrients. However, due to various external factors, the growth of roots is still limited to a certain extent, such as hard soil texture, drought and water shortage, which will affect to a certain extent. Absorption of water and nutrients. The epithetized hyphae are hyphae that grow outward from the surface of the plant roots and grow far beyond the roots of the plants. Even in places where the roots of the plants cannot reach, there will be traces of epithelial hyphae, which greatly increases the absorption surface and absorption range of the roots of the plants, thus helping the plants absorb more water and other nutrients.

Mycorrhiza increases the absorption of phosphorus by plants

Phosphorus is the least easily decomposed and flowing element. The majority of phosphorus in soil is poorly soluble phosphorus and cannot be directly absorbed by plants. Therefore, during the growth of plants, the available phosphorus around the roots is quickly absorbed, and the peripheral phosphorus is difficult to replenish rapidly, resulting in a small range of “phosphorus-depleted areas” around the roots of the plants. It is easy to produce phosphorus deficiency. However, once the plant has mycorrhiza, a large number of epithelial hyphae can cross the phosphorus-poor zone and absorb phosphorus, water and other nutrients from farther places, thus partially meeting the growth requirements of the plant.

Mycorrhiza produces auxin

During the growth process, ectomycorrhizal fungi can produce a variety of growth substances that stimulate plant growth, such as auxin, cytodinin, gibberellius, and vitamin B1. Acetic acid (IAA), etc. Therefore, when these species are symbiotic with plants, they will inevitably affect plants and promote the growth of plants. The growth hormone secreted by mycorrhizal fungi plays an important role in regulating plant nutrition, accelerating the transportation and flow of substances, promoting the differentiation and growth of plants and their roots, and accelerating the formation of chlorophyll.

Enhance plant disease resistance

Many studies have shown that some ectomycorrhizal fungi have obvious “antagonistic” effects on certain plant pathogenic bacteria. Therefore, the use of ectomycorrhizal fungi to control certain plant diseases has become a new approach to control the plant diseases in recent years. In addition, many studies have also shown that mycorrhiza can also improve other stress resistance of plants, such as drought resistance, cold resistance, salt and alkali resistance, and heavy metal pollution.

Improve the rhizosphere environment of plants

The results show that the activity of mycorrhizal fungi in the soil directly or indirectly affects the rhizosphere environment of the plant, and the changes in the rhizosphere environment will affect the population structure and activities of the rhizosphere microorganisms, and further affect the roots of the plants. Nutritional absorption.

Using the modern electron probe technology to study the surface of mycorrhiza, it was found that the “adhesive layer” on the root surface of Pinus taeda and Pinus elliottii roots greatly exceeded the sterile root seedlings, which is 2-3 times of the sterile root seedlings; The enlargement of the adhesive layer is the expansion of the ion exchange area of the plant roots, that is, the exchange, absorption, storage and transportation of nutrients by the root system is increased, thereby facilitating the growth of plants.