Improvement of Provitamin A in Maize Varieties Using Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungus, Glomus clarum

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus (AMF, Glomus clarum) has been used widely as a bio-amendment and bio-control agent in several biotechnological studies. In this study, biofortification of maize with provitamin A using AMF was investigated. Five maize varieties (V1 = white drought-resistant maize, V2= yellow provitamin A maize, V3= white drought-tolerant maize, V4= yellow striga-resistant maize and V5= white striga-resistant maize) were evaluated in a screen house experiment laid out in a completely randomized design with three treatments: T1 = maize + AMF before planting, T2 = maize + AMF, inoculated two weeks after planting and T3 (control) = maize only, and four replications. The result showed that AMF significantly (p<0.05, p = 0.0029) increased the provitamin A level of the maize varieties. White drought-tolerant maize (V3) had the highest provitamin A content (581.57 µg) after harvest, while the least (288.33 µg) was found in white drought-resistant maize (V1). Also, the effect of the treatments on the growth traits (plant height, leaf length, number of leaves per plant) of the maize varieties was highly significant.  Therefore, AMF could be considered in breeding maize with high provitamin A content and improved morphological characters.