AMF

AMF may refer to:

American Machine and Foundry

American Machine and Foundry (known after 1970 as AMF, Inc.) was once one of the largest recreational equipment companies in the United States.

The company was founded in 1900 by Rufus L. Patterson, inventor of the first automated cigarette manufacturing machine. Originally incorporated in New Jersey but operating in Brooklyn, the company began by manufacturing cigarette, baking, and stitching machines. AMF moved into the bowling business after World War II, when AMF automated bowling equipment and bowling centers became profitable business ventures. Bicycle production was added in 1950. The company was once a major diversified manufacturer of everything from tennis racquets to research reactors for the US' "Atoms for Peace" program. AMF became a major part of what would soon be called by US President Dwight D. Eisenhower as "the military-industrial complex" after WWII.

In the late 1950s, the company's vice-chairman was Walter Bedell Smith. He was a formerly a US major general, Eisenhower's wartime chief-of-staff, and Harry Truman's Ambassador to the Soviet Union. He later became the fourth Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Arbuscular mycorrhiza

An arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus (plural mycorrhizae or mycorrhizas, a.k.a. endomycorrhiza, AM fungi, or AMF) is a type of mycorrhiza in which the fungus penetrates the cortical cells of the roots of a vascular plant. (Not to be confused with ectomycorrhiza or ericoid mycorrhiza.)

Arbuscular mycorrhizas are characterized by the formation of unique structures, arbuscules and vesicles by fungi of the phylum Glomeromycota. AM fungi help plants to capture nutrients such as phosphorus, sulfur, nitrogen and micronutrients from the soil. It is believed that the development of the arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis played a crucial role in the initial colonisation of land by plants and in the evolution of the vascular plants.

It has been said that it is quicker to list the plants that do not form mycorrhizae than those that do. This symbiosis is a highly evolved mutualistic relationship found between fungi and plants, the most prevalent plant symbiosis known, and AMF is found in 80% of vascular plant families in existence today.