Occurrence of phytoalexins and phenolic compounds in endomycorrhizal interactions, and their potential role in biological control

This paper will review work mainly done during the last twenty years on the involvement of phytoalexin and phenolic compounds in mycorrhizal interactions. It has been observed that phytoalexins and associated molecules accumulate in roots after mycorrhizal infection, but less intensively and more slowly than in pathogenic interactions. Following mycorrhizal infection, enzymes of phenylpropanoid metabolism have been shown to be activated differentially. Some flavonoids and isoflavonoids have been reported to stimulate in vitro germination of mycorrhizal fungi or in vitro mycorrhizal infection, but their biological significance in signalling between the two symbiotic partners, and in biocontrol of plant disease by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, have not yet been elucidated.