The Effective Role of Mycorrhizal Symbiosis in Sinking CO<sub>2</sub> from Atmosphere of Mega Cities

Abstract

An effort was made after detailed literature survey and few experiments, conducted at Laboratory conditions about the VAM fungus inoculated plants; they have large surface area and more photosynthetic rate, can assimilate more CO2, even can grow in drought condition including water deficiency and high temperature. For this purpose, a greenhouse pot experiment was conducted in which soil manifested with fungi was used and Conocarpus erectus L (common on green belt of Karachi Streets) was selected for testing the fungal engineering. Results demonstrated a well-developed strong roots system and branching pattern of shoots rather than larger surface area of leaves of the fungal engineered plant when compared with non-treated ones. The long root system indicates the stability of plant and water transport system in high temperature and low water conditions. While increased branching pattern of areal part may be directly related to an increase in net photosynthetic rates or increase CO2 absorption in the fungal inoculated plants. This investigation showed an interesting use of VAM services for technology development of root organ culture development in areas of low water availability and high temperature condition with elevated concentration of CO2. A mechanism of absorption of CO2 related with the alteration in plant bio-physical metabolism is discussed in relation with phosphorus uptake under VAM inoculation.