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Arbuscular mycorrhizal formation in undisturbed soil counteracts compacted soil stress for pigeon pea K. Yano * , A. Yamauchi, M. Iijima, Y. Kono School of Agricultural Sciences, Nagoya University, Chikusa, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan Accepted 7 January 1998 Abstract Plant growth is sometimes restricted with soil compaction under no-tillage conditions, although undisturbed soils are favorable to arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi of a symbiont. We examined growth responses of the pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.) to soil disturbance and inoculation with an AM fungus (Gigaspora margarita Becker & Hall) in a pot experiment. The AM fungal inoculum was added to the soil and wheat was grown. After 6 months the shoot of wheat was removed and the soil was either disturbed or remained undisturbed. Subsequently, pigeon pea was grown and harvested after 3 months. The colonization and spore density of Gigaspora were significantly greater in undisturbed soil than in disturbed soil. Undisturbed soil showed higher penetrometer resistance and resulted in impaired shoot growth of the pigeon pea with lower shoot-to-root (S/R) ratio than disturbed soil. However, inoculation with the AM fungus reduced the stress impact of undisturbed soil on the pigeon pea without affecting the soil resistance and S/R ratio. A possible reason for reducing the stress impact was increase in specific root length, rather than P inflow with the AM formation. It is a novel finding that AM formation in undisturbed soil could promote root elongation despite the fact that soil was seriously compacted. # 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. Keywords: Arbuscular mycorrhiza; Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.; Gigaspora margarita Becker & Hall; Soil disturbance; Soil compaction; Tillage 1. Introduction Reduced tillage systems are important not only for economic but also for environmental reasons, namely the saving of energy input and soil erosion. However, it is pointed out that reduced tillage may cause increased soil compaction which is detrimental to crop yields (e.g., Vyn and Raimbault, 1993). In gen- eral, development of plant root systems is restricted in compacted growth media (Iijima and Kono, 1991; Iijima et al., 1991). Consequently, it is desirable to restore and to enhance the functions of root systems such as water and nutrient absorption, when the soil is compacted under reduced tillage. Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi have been found to form functional mycorrhizas enhancing some nutrient uptake, especially phosphorus (P), in many plant species (Harley, 1991), while reduced tillage is likely to be favorable to AM fungi. Mulligan et al. (1985), for example, found that excessive tillage with accompanying soil disturbance reduced the coloniza- tion of roots by AM fungi. It is generally recognized that soil disturbance can reduce AM colonization, at least in young plants (Evans and Miller, 1988; Fair- child and Miller, 1988; Jasper et al., 1989a, b). A Applied Soil Ecology 10 (1998) 95–102 *Corresponding author. Tel.: +81-52-789-4024; fax: +81-52- 789-4012; e-mail: [email protected] 0929-1393/98/$19.00 # 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII S0929-1393(98)00034-1

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Arbuscular mycorrhizal formation in undisturbed soil

counteracts compacted soil stress for pigeon pea

K. Yano*, A. Yamauchi, M. Iijima, Y. Kono

School of Agricultural Sciences, Nagoya University, Chikusa, Nagoya 464-8601, Japan

Accepted 7 January 1998

Abstract

Plant growth is sometimes restricted with soil compaction under no-tillage conditions, although undisturbed soils are favorable

to arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi of a symbiont. We examined growth responses of the pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan (L.)

Millsp.) to soil disturbance and inoculation with an AM fungus (Gigaspora margarita Becker & Hall) in a pot experiment. The

AM fungal inoculum was added to the soil and wheat was grown. After 6 months the shoot of wheat was removed and the soil

was either disturbed or remained undisturbed. Subsequently, pigeon pea was grown and harvested after 3 months. The

colonization and spore density of Gigaspora were signi®cantly greater in undisturbed soil than in disturbed soil. Undisturbed

soil showed higher penetrometer resistance and resulted in impaired shoot growth of the pigeon pea with lower shoot-to-root

(S/R) ratio than disturbed soil. However, inoculation with the AM fungus reduced the stress impact of undisturbed soil on the

pigeon pea without affecting the soil resistance and S/R ratio. A possible reason for reducing the stress impact was increase in

speci®c root length, rather than P in¯ow with the AM formation. It is a novel ®nding that AM formation in undisturbed soil

could promote root elongation despite the fact that soil was seriously compacted. # 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.

Keywords: Arbuscular mycorrhiza; Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.; Gigaspora margarita Becker & Hall; Soil disturbance; Soil compaction; Tillage

1. Introduction

Reduced tillage systems are important not only for

economic but also for environmental reasons, namely

the saving of energy input and soil erosion. However,

it is pointed out that reduced tillage may cause

increased soil compaction which is detrimental to

crop yields (e.g., Vyn and Raimbault, 1993). In gen-

eral, development of plant root systems is restricted in

compacted growth media (Iijima and Kono, 1991;

Iijima et al., 1991). Consequently, it is desirable to

restore and to enhance the functions of root systems

such as water and nutrient absorption, when the soil is

compacted under reduced tillage.

Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi have been

found to form functional mycorrhizas enhancing some

nutrient uptake, especially phosphorus (P), in many

plant species (Harley, 1991), while reduced tillage is

likely to be favorable to AM fungi. Mulligan et al.

(1985), for example, found that excessive tillage with

accompanying soil disturbance reduced the coloniza-

tion of roots by AM fungi. It is generally recognized

that soil disturbance can reduce AM colonization, at

least in young plants (Evans and Miller, 1988; Fair-

child and Miller, 1988; Jasper et al., 1989a, b). A

Applied Soil Ecology 10 (1998) 95±102

*Corresponding author. Tel.: +81-52-789-4024; fax: +81-52-

789-4012; e-mail: [email protected]

0929-1393/98/$19.00 # 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.

P I I S 0 9 2 9 - 1 3 9 3 ( 9 8 ) 0 0 0 3 4 - 1

plausible mechanism for increased AM formation

without soil disturbance is that the hyphal network

structure is well-preserved in undisturbed soils, which,

therefore, can serve as an inoculum of higher infec-

tivity (e.g., Evans and Miller, 1990; Jasper et al.,

1989a, b).

If AM formation becomes intensive in undisturbed

soil conditions it might compensate for the restricted

functions of root systems, particularly nutrient absorp-

tion. However, little is known about whether such

intensive AM formation can reduce the stress impact

of undisturbed soil on host plants, because stress

factors of undisturbed soils were almost negligible

in those studies that investigated the relationship

between soil disturbance and AM colonization.

Therefore, we conducted a pot experiment to exam-

ine whether inoculation with an AM fungus (Giga-

spora margarita Becker & Hall) to a preceding crop

(winter wheat) can reduce the adverse effects of

undisturbed soil on the growth of subsequently planted

pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan (L.) Millsp.), which is

known to be susceptible to physical properties of

the soil (Okada et al., 1991). Furthermore, we assumed

that if AM formation can reduce the stress impact of

non-disturbed soil, improvement in plant growth

would take place in two ways: by increasing P absorp-

tion per unit root length, as indicated by Nadian et al.

(1996); and increasing the root length, as indicated by

Yano et al. (1996). The former case allows root

development to remain restricted, while the latter case

provides greater penetration capability to overcome

high mechanical resistance.

2. Materials and methods

2.1. Plant growth

A commercial nutrient-poor substrate (Akatamat-

suchiTM; subsoil of an Andosol aggregated arti®cially

into 5 mm aggregations) was used so that excess soil

nutrient could not inhibit colonization of inoculated

AM fungus. This soil contained only a trace of Truog-

P and no spores of Gigaspora. Plastic pots (16 cm

diameter, 30 cm height) were ®lled with the substrate.

Fifteen gram of AM fungus inoculum (Cerakin-

kongTM, Central Glass, Japan) per pot, containing

approximately 1500 spores of Gigaspora margarita

Becker & Hall, were applied as the inoculation treat-

ment, while the same amount of inoculum sterilized

with an autoclave were applied as non-inoculation

treatment. Each inoculum was added into the soil

layer 10 cm below the surface.

Surface-sterilized seeds of wheat (Triticum aesti-

vum L., cv. Norin 61) were sown in each pot on 18

December 1993, and thinned to one plant per pot three

weeks later. Approximately 250 ml of Hoagland solu-

tion, in which the P concentration was adjusted to one-

third strength, was applied weekly to each pot. The

wheat plants were harvested on 22 June 1994. The

shoots were removed but the roots remained in the

pots. There were no apparent differences in shoot and

root growth of wheat between inoculated and non-

inoculated treatments. Then, to disturb the soil, it was

taken out and shuf¯ed thoroughly using a shovel in a

container to cut it into 5 mm particle size, while in

another pot the soil was not disturbed. Consequently,

four soil treatments were prepared: non-inoculated

with the AM fungus and undisturbed soil (NI-UD);

inoculated and undisturbed soil (I-UD); non-inocu-

lated and disturbed soil (NI-D); and inoculated and

disturbed soil (I-D). Four replicate pots were prepared

for each treatment.

On 4 July 1994, surface-sterilized seeds of pigeon

pea (Snow Brand, Japan) were sown in each pot and

thinned to one plant per pot 2 weeks later. Fertilizer

was not applied to the pigeon pea. Water was supplied

into each pot every three days until excess water

drained from the pot.

2.2. Determination of the shoot dry matter and P

content

At 90 days after planting, shoots were harvested and

oven dried at 708C for 48 h. The dried samples were

weighed and ground. The P concentration in the shoots

was determined colorimetrically by following the

phosphovanado±molybdate method after the plant

materials had been digested with nitric acid and per-

chloric acid (Hanson, 1950).

2.3. Measurement of soil penetration resistance and

spore density

After harvesting the shoots, soil penetration resis-

tance in each pot was measured using a penetrometer

96 K. Yano et al. / Applied Soil Ecology 10 (1998) 95±102

(DIK-5520, Daiki rika kogyo, Japan). To ensure the

soil was at its maximum water holding capacity, water

was supplied into each pot until the excess water

drained from the pot 1 day before the measurement.

The root system was then carefully removed from the

pot soil, washed with tap water to completely remove

any adhered soil. Washed root system was weighed

freshly after removing excess water with a paper

towel, and then preserved in FAA (formalin 1: acetic

acid 1: 70% ethyl alcohol 18 by volume). The remain-

ing soil was thoroughly mixed, and then the fungus

spore density was determined. The fungus spores were

collected from 100 ml volume of pot soil using the

method of sucrose density gradient centrifugation

after wet sieving (Daniels and Skipper, 1982), and

were counted under a stereoscope.

2.4. Measurement of root length and AM

colonization

The total root length was measured with a root

length scanner (Commonwealth Aircraft, Australia).

After measurement of the length, roots were further

cut into about 1 cm segments. The root segments were

randomly collected and cleared in 10% KOH (Phillips

and Hayman, 1970). These segments were then

bleached by 1/10 diluted H2O2 to ensure clearing

and then stained with trypan blue in lactoglycerol.

Percentages of the total root length colonized were

estimated using the grid intersect method (Giovanneti

and Mosse, 1980).

2.5. Statistical analysis

The data were analyzed by two-way analysis of

variance (ANOVA), in which the variation sources

consisted of the inoculation (I or NI) and soil dis-

turbance (D or UD) treatments. To improve normality,

log and arcsine square root transformations were

performed for data on the percentage colonized root

length and the spore density respectively. Duncan's

multiple range tests were performed to evaluate the

signi®cance of differences among the four treatment

combinations.

3. Results

3.1. Shoot growth of pigeon pea

Table 1 shows the dry weight, phosphorus (P)

concentration and P content of the harvested shoots

at 90 days after planting (DAP). All plants in the four

treatments bloomed at this stage. The shoot dry matter

decreased in the order I-D>NI-D>I-UD>NI-UD.

Although the P concentration was not signi®cantly

different among treatments in any shoot parts, it

tended to be higher in non-disturbed treatments

Table 1

Effects of inoculation with the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Gigaspora margarita and soil disturbance on the dry weight (DW) and

phosphorus (P) content in the shoot of pigeon pea at 90 days after planting (DAP)

Treatments DW (g plantÿ1) P conc. (mg gÿ1 DW) P content (mg plantÿ1)

Leaves Stems Total Leaves Stems Total Leaves Stems Total

NI-UD 0.69c 1.89d 2.58d 1.85a 1.16a 1.35a 1.34c 2.14c 3.49c

I-UD 1.09c 3.98c 5.07c 1.95a 1.21a 1.38a 2.12bc 4.84b 6.96b

NI-D 2.15b 5.82b 7.97b 1.63a 1.07a 1.22a 3.36ab 6.20ab 9.56ab

I-D 2.70a 7.61a 10.31a 1.75a 1.00a 1.19a 4.51a 7.42a 11.93a

ANOVA

Source Probability

Inoculation (I) 0.2066 0.0196 0.0411 0.3428 0.9135 0.9705 0.0522 0.0080 0.0108

Disturbance (D) 0.0011 <0.001 <0.001 0.0786 0.0616 0.0761 <0.001 <0.001 <0.001

I�D 0.8290 0.8396 0.9482 0.9419 0.3947 0.7631 0.6867 0.2538 0.5788

NI-UD, non-inoculated and undisturbed soil; I-UD, inoculated and undisturbed soil; NI-D, non-inoculated and disturbed soil; I-D, inoculated

and disturbed soil.

Means followed by the same letters within a column are not significantly different (p<0.05) from each other by Duncan's multiple range test.

K. Yano et al. / Applied Soil Ecology 10 (1998) 95±102 97

(NI-UD and I-UD) compared with disturbed ones (NI-

D and I-D). The P content differed between the

treatments in the same order as the shoot dry weight,

but was not signi®cantly different between I-UD and

NI-D, and between NI-D and I-D, while the P content

of NI-UD was signi®cantly lower than in the other

treatments. The shoot dry weight and the P content in

the I-ND treatment were approximately twice those in

the NI-UD treatment. ANOVA detected no signi®cant

interaction effects between inoculation and soil dis-

turbance for the dry weight and the P content.

3.2. Soil hardness, spore density and colonization by

AM fungus

Fig. 1 shows the soil penetration resistance as an

index of the soil hardness in each treatment just after

the harvest. Resistance was clearly higher in undis-

turbed soil than in disturbed soil. However, there was

no signi®cant difference between non-inoculated and

inoculated soils within the same soil disturbance

treatment.

Table 2 shows the differences among treatments in

the number of mycorrhizal spores and the percentage of root length colonized at 90 DAP. The number of

Gigaspora spores in I-UD was more than twice that in

I-D, while no spores were found in NI-UD or NI-D.

Looking at the percentage of the root length colonized,

the I-UD treatment was highest and the I-D treatment

next. Some colonization was observed in the NI-D and

NI-UD treatments but with much lower levels, due to

indigenous fungi. ANOVA results for the spore density

indicated that the interaction effect and both main

effects were signi®cant. For the percentage of root

length colonized, interaction and inoculation effects

were signi®cant but no signi®cant effect was detected

due to soil disturbance.

3.3. Development and function of root system

Fig. 2 shows the appearance of the harvested root

system in each treatment at 90 DAP. Root system

development in the NI-UD treatment was clearly

poorer compared to the other three treatments. Com-

paring the root system of NI-UD and I-UD, it was

clear that the root development in undisturbed soil was

distinctly improved by inoculation.

Table 3 shows the root fresh weight, root length,

speci®c root length, shoot-to-root (S/R) ratio and

Fig. 1. Changes in penetration resistance with soil depth in the NI-

UD (&), I-UD (&), NI-D (*) and I-D (*) treatments. Values are

shown in means�S.E. of four replicates. NI-UD, non-inoculated

and undisturbed soil; I-UD, inoculated and undisturbed soil; NI-D,

non-inoculated and disturbed soil; I-D, inoculated and disturbed

soil.

Table 2

Effects of inoculatation with the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus

Gigaspora margarita and soil disturbance on the percentage of

colonized root length to the total root length of pigeon pea and the

spore density in the soil at 90 days after planting (DAP)

Treatments Colonized

root length (%)

Spore density

(no. per 100 ml soil)

NI-UD 15.5 c 0.0 c

I-UD 56.3 a 23.0 a

NI-D 17.3 c 0.0 c

I-D 41.5 b 9.6 b

ANOVA

Source Probability

Inoculation (I) <0.001 <0.001

Disturbance (D) 0.1066 0.0149

I�D 0.0495 0.0149

NI-UD, non-inoculated and undisturbed soil; I-UD, inoculated and

undisturbed soil; NI-D, non-inoculated and disturbed soil; I-D,

inoculated and disturbed soil.

Means followed by the same letters within a column are not

significantly different (p<0.05) from each other by Duncan's

multiple range test.

98 K. Yano et al. / Applied Soil Ecology 10 (1998) 95±102

the shoot P absorption per unit root length in each

treatment. The fresh weight decreased in the order

I-D�NI-D�I-UD>NI-UD, as with the shoot growth.

Although the tap root length did not differ among

treatments, signi®cant differences were found in the

total length of all lateral roots. ANOVA results

indicated that, for the root fresh weight, the

disturbance effect was signi®cant. For the total

Fig. 2. Root system appearence of pigeon pea in the pot of NI-UD (a), I-UD (b), NI-D (c) and I-D (d) treatments at 90 DAP. Bar indicates

10 cm length. NI-UD, non-inoculated and undisturbed soil; I-UD, inoculated and undisturbed soil; NI-D, non-inoculated and disturbed soil;

I-D, inoculated and disturbed soil.

Table 3

Effects of inoculation with the arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus Gigaspora margarita and soil disturbance on the root system development of

pigeon pea at 90 DAP

Treatments Fresh weight

(g plantÿ1)

Root length (m plantÿ1) Specific root length

(m gÿ1 FW)

S/R ratio

(g DW gÿ1FW)

P absorption

(mg P mÿ1 root length)

Tap root Lateral root

NI-UD 20.0 c 0.569 a 73.85 c 3.92 c 0.134 c 0.048 a

I-UD 34.0 b 0.598 a 192.00 b 5.69 b 0.149 c 0.036 c

NI-D 36.2 ab 0.526 a 206.03 b 5.78 b 0.221 b 0.047 ab

I-D 40.9 a 0.479 a 291.68 a 7.39 a 0.253 a 0.040 bc

ANOVA

Source Probability

Inoculation (I) 0.0518 0.9168 <0.001 0.0037 0.2306 0.1120

Disturbance (D) 0.0199 0.3379 <0.001 0.0027 <0.001 0.8045

I�D 0.3028 0.6683 0.3414 0.8667 0.6557 0.5742

NI-UD, non-inoculated and undisturbed soil; I-UD, inoculated and undisturbed soil; NI-D, non-inoculated and disturbed soil; I-D, inoculated

and disturbed soil.

Means followed by the same letters within a colum are not significantly different (p<0.05) from each other by Duncan's multiple range test.

K. Yano et al. / Applied Soil Ecology 10 (1998) 95±102 99

root length of all lateral roots, both inoculation

and disturbance effects were signi®cant at high

probabilities (p<0.001).

The speci®c root length and S/R ratio were calcu-

lated using the root fresh weight. The speci®c root

length showed differences between treatments similar

to the differences observed in the lateral root length.

ANOVA results indicated that the interaction effect

was not signi®cant while the two main effects were

signi®cant (p<0.01). The S/R ratio showed signi®-

cantly lower values in undisturbed treatments than

in disturbed ones. Plants in the I-D treatment had a

signi®cantly higher S/R ratio than plants in the NI-D

treatment while no signi®cant difference was found

between plants in the I-UD and NI-UD treatments.

ANOVA results indicated that only the soil distur-

bance effect was highly signi®cant (p<0.001). The

speci®c P absorption was obtained by dividing the

shoot P content by the total root length in each plant.

The P absorption was found to be in the order NI-

UD�NI-D�I-D�I-UD, but ANOVA could not detect

any signi®cant effects.

4. Discussion

Our main objective was to examine whether inocu-

lation with the AM fungus Gigaspora margarita of a

preceding wheat can reduce the stress impact of non-

tilled (non-disturbed) soil conditions on the growth of

a succeeding pigeon pea. Undisturbed soil condition,

as measured by higher penetration resistance (Fig. 1),

clearly imposed the pigeon pea a stress due to soil

compaction (Table 1). Comparing I-UD with NI-UD,

however, the stress impact was reduced in inoculated

soil without changing the resistance.

A number of studies have shown that undisturbed

soil conditions causes intensive AM formation (Evans

and Miller, 1988, 1990; Fairchild and Miller, 1988,

1990; Jasper et al., 1989a, b, 1991; McGonigle et al.,

1990). Those studies examined young plants approxi-

mately up to 1-month old, while McGonigle and

Miller (1993) found that early intensive AM coloniza-

tion under no-tillage and ridge tillage conditions

compared to the tilled case almost disappeared from

50 DAP. Contrarily, intensive AM colonization in

undisturbed soil was still found at 90 DAP in the

present experiment (Table 2).

Despite intensive AM colonization, shoot growth at

harvest was primarily determined by soil disturbance

(i.e. disturbed>undisturbed) and secondarily deter-

mined by inoculation (i.e. inoculated>non-inoculated)

(Table 1). Adverse effects of undisturbed soils were

not emphasized in previous reports that investigated

the relationship between soil disturbance and AM

colonization. Probably because of the relatively short

experimental duration, the stress impact on the plants

would be negligible in those studies. Indeed, we could

not ®nd signi®cant differences in shoot growth

between NI-UD and NI-D at 30 DAP (data are not

shown).

The stress impact of the undisturbed soil was also

re¯ected in the S/R ratio. In general, plants in stressful

environments seem to put more of their resources into

root production (Fitter and Hay, 1981). Although the

S/R ratio was not signi®cantly affected by inoculation,

it was signi®cantly lower in both undisturbed soils,

compared to disturbed soils (Table 3). This implies

that both NI-UD and I-UD plants allocated more

amount of the photosynthate into the root system

relative to the shoot than NI-D and I-D plants, prob-

ably to adapt to the stressful environment.

It is known that roots in compacted media become

thicker (i.e., lower speci®c root length) compared to

roots in non-compacted media (Iijima et al., 1991;

Russell, 1977). While both NI-UD and I-UD plants

showed a similarly low S/R ratio, I-UD plants had a

remarkably greater speci®c root length than NI-UD

plants (Table 3). Thus, although the plants in undis-

turbed substrate gave priority to the root system as

regards the photosynthate allocation, the below-

ground use of the allocated photosynthate was quite

different. A greater speci®c root length was found not

only in I-UD but also in I-D plants (Table 3), so that

this morphological modi®cation of the root system can

be attributed to the AM fungus inoculated.

AM colonization of a root system often increases

nutrient absorption, particularly P (Harley, 1991). For

increasing P absorption by AM formation, two expla-

nations should be considered: higher absorption abil-

ity per unit root length; and extended root length. In

this study we have assumed that the former case would

allow the root system development to remain

restricted, while the latter would allow the root system

to develop with greater penetrative force to overcome

the higher mechanical resistance. Nadian et al. (1996)

100 K. Yano et al. / Applied Soil Ecology 10 (1998) 95±102

found an increase in P absorption per unit root length

in AM roots of 7-week old clover when low-P soil was

compacted. The present results, however, support the

latter case, since the improvement in root system

development in mycorrhizal plants was remarkable

(Fig. 2), particularly the lateral roots, while no

increase in P absorption per unit root length was found

(Table 3).

It is a novel ®nding that AM formation in undis-

turbed soil could promote root elongation despite the

fact that the soil was seriously compacted. According

to a sensitivity analysis using mathematical model-

ling, the rate of root elongation was more sensitive

than the root radius for P uptake (Barber, 1984).

However, most studies have assumed that the mycor-

rhizal bene®ts in nutrient uptake are due to solely the

increase in the soil volume that is exploited by the

external hyphae, extending the rhizosphere radially.

To the contrary, we pointed out elsewhere that the

bene®ts of AM formation should be taken to include

also the axially expanded rhizosphere (Yano et al.,

1996). The present results strongly imply the impor-

tance of root extension for AM bene®ts.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful S. Ban (Central Glass, Japan) for

providing AM fungus inoculum. This work was sup-

ported by a Grant-in-Aid for Scienti®c Research from

the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture, Japan

(No. 08406002).

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