Perennial fruit crops are known to form effective relationships with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) but few studies have been conducted in Australia or with sweet cherry, which is an important fruit crop in Tasmania. The aim of recent research has been to characterize these associations and explore functions related to fruit quality.

Glasshouse trials were established with sweet cherry cuttings inoculated with Rhizophagus irregularis, and found that survival and growth of cuttings increased significantly. Treatments with reduced and excessive water application sought to determine if presence of the same AMF species could moderate changes in water potential and other physiological indicators of stress, but results were typically not significant.

A field trial was conducted which examined the impact of conventional and alternative fertilizer and weed management on fruit quality in a commercial sweet cherry orchard. A positive and significant relationship was found between root colonization by native AMF and several fruit quality characteristics, including titratable acidity and total soluble solids.

Studies to estimate abundance and diversity of resident AMF species have been conducted in two commercial sweet cherry orchards. Extraction of soil DNA and glomeranspecific quantitative PCR has revealed that strong seasonal differences in abundance of glomeran species can be found, and species diversity via PacBio next generation sequencing will also be presented.

In conclusion, knowledge of the role of AMF in commercial orchards is vital to inform practical management and through a range of ongoing studies this is being advanced.