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Although arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi are obligate symbionts that can influence plant growth, the magnitude and direction of these effects are highly variable within fungal genera and even among isolates within species, as well as among plant taxa. To determine whether variability in AM fungal morphology and growth is correlated with AM fungal effects on plant growth, we established a common garden experiment with 56 AM fungal isolates comprising 17 genera and six families growing with three plant host species. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal morphology and growth was highly conserved among isolates of the same species and among species within a family. By contrast, plant growth response to fungal inoculation was highly variable, with the majority of variation occurring among different isolates of the same AM fungal species. Our findings show that host performance cannot be predicted from AM fungal morphology and growth traits. Divergent effects on plant growth among isolates within an AM fungal species may be caused by coevolution between co-occurring fungal and plant populations., (© 2017 The Authors. New Phytologist © 2017 New Phytologist Trust.)

Two new arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal species (Glomeromycota) of genus Glomus, G. africanum and G. iranicum, are described and illustrated. Both species formed spores in loose clusters and singly in soil and G. iranicum sometimes inside roots. G. africanum spores are pale yellow to brownish yellow, globose to subglobose, (60-)87(-125) μm diam, sometimes ovoid to irregular, 80-110 x 90-140 μm. The spore wall consists of a semipermanent, hyaline, outer layer and a laminate, smooth, pale yellow to brownish yellow, inner layer, which always is markedly thinner than the outer layer. G. iranicum spores are hyaline to pastel yellow, globose to subglobose, (13-)40(-56) μm diam, rarely egg-shaped, prolate to irregular, 39-54 x 48-65 μm. The spore wall consists of three smooth layers: one mucilaginous, short-lived, hyaline, outermost; one permanent, semirigid, hyaline, middle; and one laminate, hyaline to pastel yellow, innermost. Only the outermost spore wall layer of G. iranicum stains red in Melzer's reagent. In the field G. africanum was associated with roots of five plant species and an unrecognized shrub colonizing maritime sand dunes of two countries in Europe and two in Africa, and G. iranicum was associated with Triticum aestivum cultivated in southwestern Iran. In one-species cultures with Plantago lanceolata as the host plant G. africanum and G. iranicum formed arbuscular mycorrhizae. Phylogenetic analyses of partial SSU sequences of nrDNA placed the two new species in Glomus group A. Both species were distinctly separated from sequences of described Glomus species.