Phosphate solubilizing fungi enhance insoluble phosphate dissolution via organic acid production: mechanisms and applications

Summary

1 IntroductionPhosphorus (P) is an essential element for plant growth, which functions in photosynthesis, root development, and nucleotide incorporation (Bisson et al., 2017). However, only 0.1-0.5% of the total soil P is available for plants to absorb (Sharma et al., 2013). Generally, most P in the soil is insoluble and adsorbed, significantly affecting plant accessibility and crop yield (Tian et al., 2020). The commonly insoluble phosphates (IPs) in soils usually include ferric phosphate (FePO4, Fe-P), aluminum phosphate (AlPO4, Al-P), and tricalcium phosphate (Ca3(PO4)2, Ca-P) (Tian et al., 2024). These IPs are distributed across various soil types, which limits crop yields and phosphorus use efficiency (Tian et al., 2021a).The input of chemical phosphate fertilizer can promote plant ad