Biol 114 The Effect of Mycorrhizal Fungi on Arabidopsis thaliana Growth and Development
Location
Turner Gymnasium
Access Type
Campus Access Only
Presentation Type
Printed poster
Entry Number
20
Start Date
4-16-2026 12:00 PM
End Date
4-16-2026 1:15 PM
School
School of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Department
Biology
Keywords
Arabidopsis
Abstract
The majority of plants have a symbiotic relationship with Arbuscular Mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), however a few plants have lost the ability to form this symbiotic relationship with AMF and the reason for this is unknown. AMF, in host plants, often benefits growth and provides nutrients to their roots. Arabidopsis thaliana is a known non-host plant, and basic studies have shown that the presence of AMF decreases likelihood of successful growth within the species. With many options of genetic mutations in A. thaliana that have unknown phenotypical effects, we randomly selected mutated gene (16284) to test if it affected genes that typically control the defenses that nonhost plants have against AMF. We wanted to see if the genetic mutation can pass through the defense mechanism and re-form the symbiosis with the fungus. In a controlled set up, we tested different groups including a wild type control and wild type fungus against a genetically mutated control and fungus to measure how well the plants grew along with the number of leaves, the size of the largest leaf and height of bolt. The length of the bolts in the wild type control was significantly taller than the bolts in mutant control, as well there was a difference in the height between the wild type fungus and the mutant fungus but not significant. Mutant testing provides discoveries into how certain genes affect the growth of plants under stress, specifically understanding the relationship between AMF and non-host plants may help growth of other produce plants as important crops are not involved in symbiotic relationships.
Primary Faculty Mentor(s)
Dr. Erin Friedman
Primary Faculty Mentor(s) Department
Biology
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Biol 114 The Effect of Mycorrhizal Fungi on Arabidopsis thaliana Growth and Development
Turner Gymnasium
The majority of plants have a symbiotic relationship with Arbuscular Mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), however a few plants have lost the ability to form this symbiotic relationship with AMF and the reason for this is unknown. AMF, in host plants, often benefits growth and provides nutrients to their roots. Arabidopsis thaliana is a known non-host plant, and basic studies have shown that the presence of AMF decreases likelihood of successful growth within the species. With many options of genetic mutations in A. thaliana that have unknown phenotypical effects, we randomly selected mutated gene (16284) to test if it affected genes that typically control the defenses that nonhost plants have against AMF. We wanted to see if the genetic mutation can pass through the defense mechanism and re-form the symbiosis with the fungus. In a controlled set up, we tested different groups including a wild type control and wild type fungus against a genetically mutated control and fungus to measure how well the plants grew along with the number of leaves, the size of the largest leaf and height of bolt. The length of the bolts in the wild type control was significantly taller than the bolts in mutant control, as well there was a difference in the height between the wild type fungus and the mutant fungus but not significant. Mutant testing provides discoveries into how certain genes affect the growth of plants under stress, specifically understanding the relationship between AMF and non-host plants may help growth of other produce plants as important crops are not involved in symbiotic relationships.