Sustainable agriculture: possible trajectories from mutualistic symbiosis and plant neodomestication.
Food demand will increase concomitantly with human population. Food production therefore needs to be high enough and, at the same time, minimize damage to the environment. This equation cannot be solved with current strategies. Based on recent findings, new trajectories for agriculture and plant breeding which take into account the belowground compartment and evolution of mutualistic strategy, are proposed in this opinion article. In this context, we argue that plant breeders have the opportunity to make use of native arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) symbiosis in an innovative ecologically intensive agriculture.
Université de Rennes I, CNRS UMR6553 EcoBio, Campus Beaulieu, F-35042 Rennes, France; Institute of Ecological Science, Vrije Universiteit, 1081 HV Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Marie
M
Duhamel
Philippe
P
Vandenkoornhuyse
D000383:Agriculture; D001947:Breeding; D018556:Crops, Agricultural / Q000166:cytology / Q000382:microbiology* / Q000502:physiology; D005523:Food Supply; D006801:Humans; D038821:Mycorrhizae / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D013559:Symbiosis