The International Culture Collection of Glomeromycota (CICG - www.furb.br / CICG ) is one of the unique collections in Latin America to house germplasm of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF - Phylum Glomeromycota - Kingdom Fungi ), an important group of soil fungi that establish the arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) association with land plants; they help plants to uptake nutrientes from the soil. The CICG currently has 80 isolates ( = lineages ) representing 25 species of AMF in the genus Gigaspora , Scutellospora , Racocetra , Acaulospora , Rhizophagus , Glomus , Claroideoglomus , Paraglomus and Archaeospora. Isolates originate from soils collected in Santa Catarina and other Brazilian states or they were deposited by researchers. The relevance of CICG can be appreciated the services it can provide. They include identification of AMF species requested by researchers from Universities or commercial enterprises for survey studies of AMF diversity , or when it needs to know which species of AMF are associated with a particular plant species. The fungal germplasm of CICG serves as subsidies for education and training in taxonomy through workshops and by offering internships to students and researchers in the laboratory. Finally, the preservation of living cultures of AMF per se is one of the most important services of CICG, preserving the taxonomic, genetic and physiological diversity of this group of microorganisms occurring in several Brazilian ecosystems. From an applied perspective, the isolates of CICG may be screened for their potential to promote plant growth and nutrient acquisition by plants, which is the first step to develop a microbial inoculant based on mycorrhizal fungi. This inoculant can then be used as biofertilizer thus reducing the use of chemical fertilizers in agriculture.

Online since: 07/02/2014
Last update: 01/08/2014

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Contacts

Director or head of department:
Geraldo Moretto
gmoretto@furb.br
Curator:
Sidney Luiz Stürmer
sturmer@furb.br
Technician:
Morilo José Rigon Filho
mrigon@furb.br