Improvement of common bean crops after inoculating plants with Alternaria solani IA300, Could Alternaria act like mycorrhiza on common bean crops?

Abstract Although the study of plant–rhizosphere microorganism associations has become an important knowledge resource to achieve sustainable agriculture, little has been achieved to replace chemical fertilization since most of these studies have been carried out under controlled conditions and not in experimental fields. In this study, we evaluated the effect of inoculating plants of two common bean cultivars at the vegetative and reproductive stages of the crop cycle with Alternaria solani native strain IA300 under field conditions. The results showed that A. solani is capable of increasing the production of common bean cultivars, which is reflected over different in the vegetative and reproductive analyzed: foliar area, plant length (cm), fresh weight (g), dry weight (g), number of leaves, flowers, seedpod, and seed yield; which leave for consideration that Alternaria solaninative strain IA300 may be considered a growth-promoting microorganism under field conditions. In summary, results showed that Alternaria inoculation effects on foliar area are cultivar bean dependent