PJB-2018-913
Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Symbiosis Alleviates Drought Stress Imposed on Wheat Plants
Ashraf Metwally
Abstract
Drought stress is a severe environmental constraint induced loss in crop yield in the majority of agricultural regions. The aim of this study was to determine the contribution of native arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) inoculation on growth, pigmentation, metabolites and grain yield of wheat plants (Triticum aestivum L.) grown under different levels of water dificincy (D0, 100% Field Capacity; D1, 75% FC; D2, 50% FC and D3, 25% FC). Fungal inoculation consisted of a mixture of three most common native species of AMF isolated from harsh environment and identified as Acaulospora capsicula, Glomus aggregatum and Glomus geosporum. The results suggested that AMF inoculation has a beneficial effect on plant tolerance to drought and effectively improved biomass and crop productivity of wheat plants grown under drought. Mycorrhizal symbiosis alleviates the inhibitory effect of drought stress via improving water status and chlorophyll biosynthesis of wheat plants. Mycorrhizal colonization increased gradually and was higher at maturity stage under low level of drought (D1). The mycorrhizal wheat plants had higher shoot P than non-mycorrhizal plant at all samplings regardless of levels of drought stress. In general, with all treatments, the content of photosynthetic pigment fractions were inhibited as the level of drought increased in the soil pot experiment. However, the contents of photosynthetic pigments of mycorrhizal wheat plant leaves were significantly (p<0.05) greater than those of non-mycorrhizal ones The results indicated that native mycorrhizal inoculation alleviate the effects of drought stress on wheat plants by enhancement the process of phosphorus uptake, pigment biosynthesis and accumulation of plant metabolites and may be used as a biofertilizer.
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