Morphological and Molecular Characterizations of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi and Their Influence on Soil Physicochemical Properties and Plant Nutrition

[Image: see text] Pulses are considered a remarkable and stable source of nutrients, which are being presently extensively cultivated and consumed in different parts of the world. Pulses belong to the family Leguminosae and are a rich source of nutrients such as phosphorus (P) and nitrogen (N) for best growth via symbiotic relationship with bacteria and AMF (arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi). The aim of the current study was evaluating the influence of AMF diversity associated with various pulses (French bean, mung bean, kidney bean, peas, soybean, peanuts, and grams). Furthermore, AMF characterization was done using morphological features of spores and sequencing of the rDNA gene, which confirmed the existence of 10 different AMF taxa. Among the different genera, the genus Glomus was observed to be the most dominant with 30% species followed by Gigaspora (22%), Sclerocystis (12%), Acaulospora (8%), Rhizophagus and Septoglomus (7%), Diversispora (5%), and Claroideoglomus, Archaeospora, and Ambispora (3%). Furthermore, soil physicochemical analysis and percentage of AMF colonization results revealed the fact that the phosphorus content (inversely proportional to the AMF diversity) was a determining factor of AMF diversity. The highest amount of available phosphorus (62.825 mg kg(–1)) in the district Swabi resulted in a low rate of AMF colonization (6.66 ± 11.54%) with a comparatively higher rate of AMF colonization (50.66 ± 1.15%) found in the soil of the district Chitral having a low phosphorus content (17.3 ± 7.6 mg kg(–1)). Nutrient uptake by pulses including nitrogen (2.4 ± 1.3%), phosphorus (13.5 ± 7.6 mg kg (–1)), potassium (99.5 ± 25.8 mg kg (–1)), zinc (1.4 ± 0.5 mg kg (–1)), moisture (2.3 ± 1.3%), crude fats (5.6 ± 2.8%), ash (4 ± 1.2%), and proteins (13.6 ± 9.01%) determined the fact that AMF species diversity is positively correlated to the plant mineral nutrition. From the current study, it is concluded that AMF inoculation to the soil fields is beneficial to ensure the sustainability and productivity of pulse crops in diverse environmental conditions without polluting the soil.