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Abstract
Arbuscular mycorrhizae may reduce the susceptibility and damages caused by pathogens. Coffee is a crop that has a high degree of mycotrophy and it has been proven that mycorrhizas improve plant development. The purpose of this study was to compare the effect of plants inoculated with consortia of mycorrhizal fungi and their interaction with phytopathogenic nematodes. Seven consortia of native coffee plantation mycorrhizae fungi were isolated, and the interaction of the different inoculums was compared with the root-knot nematode that causes coffee corky-root disease, also called corchosis. For this purpose, coffee plants were inoculated with the seven consortia of AMF and after seven months they were inoculated with 1500 juveniles and eggs; the following were defined: dry weight, root volume, leaf area and number of leaves, extraradical mycelium, chlorophyll quantity, percentage of colonization, number of spores, and population of nematodes. The root system volume of plants inoculated with the pathogen decreased by up to 70.93%; however, the plants observed were apparently healthy and vigorous in the aerial part, which leads us to assume that although the nematode penetrates the root and damages it, the fungal hyphae allow the passage of nutrients and therefore the plant attains its development.