title: The response of Aster amellus (Asteraceae) to mycorrhiza depends on the origins of both the soil and the fungi.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Previous studies testing pairwise interactions between plants, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and soil have shown that the effectiveness of such interactions depends on the origins of the plants, soil, and AMF. Surprisingly, no study has yet looked at the three-way interaction between plants, soil, and AMF originating from the same and from different sites. Such knowledge could elucidate the determinants of local adaptations of plants and thus might help in various revegetation attempts.
  
  
  METHODS
  Six populations of the obligately mycorrhizal plant species Aster amellus from two isolated regions were combined with the soil and the AMF ecotype from their sites and plant growth were monitored over 16 months.
  
  
  RESULTS
  For each combination of soil and native AMF, plants grown with their native AMF in their native soil had higher aboveground biomass, invested more to aboveground biomass and had higher numbers of fl ower heads than the other plants. The specifi city of the relationship among plant populations, AMF, and soil was also observed for percentage of root colonization.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The study extends our knowledge of the specifi c interaction between plants and AMF by demonstrating that the positive effect of native AMF occurs only when the plants are also grown in their native soil. Thus, when attempting to facilitate plant growth, we need to consider the origin of the plants, the soil, and the AMF, because all three components are adapted to each other.
authors: Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Charles University, 120 00 Prague 2, Czech Republic. hana.pankova@ibot.cas.cz
authors: Hana
authors: H
authors: Pánková
authors: Zuzana
authors: Z
authors: Münzbergová
authors: Jana
authors: J
authors: Rydlová
authors: Miroslav
authors: M
authors: Vosátka