Pool sizes of fructans in roots and leaves of mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal barley

The effect of arbuscular mycorrhizas on fructan accumulation was studied in barley (Hordeum vulgare) infected with Glomus mosseae. Treatments with and without fertilizer were included in order to distinguish between mere fert ilizer effects and the effects of the symbiosis, and plants were harvested at two different time points, 35 and 50 d after planting. Fructan was the m ajor storage carboyhdrate in both leaves and roots. The amounts of fructan were markedly altered in the mycorrhizal plants. In roots of non-fertilized mycorrhizal plants, fructan pools were significantly greater than in the c orresponding non-mycorrhizal plants. By contrast, fertilization caused a ge neral decrease in amounts of fructan in roots. The increase of fructan in m ycorrhizal roots was correlated with a decrease of invertase activity. In l eaves, fructan pools decreased or remained unchanged upon mycorrhizal infec tion; fertilization had a similar effect. However, when individual leaves o f a plant were compared, intriguing effects of the mycorrhizal symbiosis co uld be observed. Whereas in non-mycorrhizal plants, the youngest leaves had the highest fructan contents and the oldest leaves the lowest (as previous ly reported), this gradient was markedly altered in mycorrhizal plants, ind icating systemic effects of mycorrhiza on assimilate partitioning in shoots .