Arbuscular mycorrhiza influences carbon‐use efficiency and grain yield of wheat grown under pre‐ and post‐anthesis salinity stress

Abstract

• Soil salinity severely affects and constrains crop production worldwide. Salinity causes osmotic and ionic stress, inhibiting gas exchange and photosynthesis, ultimately impairing plant growth and development. Arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) have been shown to maintain light and carbon use efficiency under stress, possibly providing a tool to improve salinity tolerance of the host plants. Thus, it was hypothesized that AM will contribute to improved growth and yield under stress conditions. • Wheat plants (Triticum aestivum L.) were grown with (AMF+) or without (AMFÀ) arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) inoculation. Plants were subjected to salinity stress (200 mM NaCl) either at pre-or post-anthesis or at both stages. Growth and yield components, leaf chlorophyll content as well as gas exchange parameters and AMF colonization were analysed. • AM plants exhibited a higher rate of net photosynthesis and stomatal conductance and lower intrinsic water use efficiency. Furthermore, AM wheat plants subjected to salinity stress at both pre-anthesis and post-anthesis maintained higher grain yield than non-AM salinity-stressed plants. • These results suggest that AMF inoculation mitigates the negative effects of salinity stress by influencing carbon use efficiency and maintaining higher grain yield under stress.

Salinity Stress in Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) in the Changing Climate: Adaptation and Management Strategies

“…This decreased the number of spikes and kernels per spikes, which ultimately reduced the yield potential in wheat (Maas and Grieve, 1990). Likewise, use of 200 mM NaCl stress at pre-anthesis and post-anthesis stage caused reduction in aboveground biomass, ears plant −1 , ear weight, number of grains plant −1 , C, N, and C/N ratio in grains, and carbon use efficiency at both stages, although the reductions were higher due to imposition of stress at both stages as compared to single-stage (Eroglu et al, 2020). It has also been observed that the unavailability of sufficient photo-assimilates during the reproductive stage is the leading cause for losing yield potential in wheat, and this might be due to the changes in gene expression caused by salt stress during the pre-anthesis and grain filling stage.…”

“…Salinity delays the onset of seedlings germination, decreases the seedling growth and the dispersion of germination events, seedling metabolism, causing a reduction in plant growth and crop productivity (El Sabagh et al, 2019a,b,c, 2020. One important approach is to develop an understanding of the plant response toward salinity stress.…”

Plant Growth Promoting Rhizobacteria, Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi and Their Synergistic Interactions to Counteract the Negative Effects of Saline Soil on Agriculture: Key Macromolecules and Mechanisms

“…AMF form vesicles, arbuscules, and hyphae in the associated roots, and produce spores and hyphae in the rhizosphere. The development of a hyphal network by the AMF, which is connected with plant roots, provides plants greater access to soil surface area, resulting in improved growth [ 112 , 113 ]. AMF boost plant nutrition by increasing the availability and translocation of various nutrients.…”

“…4.1.6. Antioxidant Production AMF facilitate plants to modulate salinity stress by increasing the activities of antioxidant enzymes such as catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), glutathione reductase (GR), monodehydroascorbate reductase (MDHAR), and dehydroascorbate reductase (DHAR), and glutathione-S-transferase that protect plants from oxidative damage [112,146,149,155]. These enzymes help to alleviate the excess ROS and maintain the equilibrium of the formation and removal of ROS, providing the host plant better tolerance against oxidative stress.…”

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi alleviate salinity stress in peanut: Evidence from pot‐grown and field experiments

“…Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) species are common in the soil of legume crops. These offer good bioamelioration by improving root nutrient assimilation (Estrada et al, 2013), root water uptake ability (Aroca et al, 2007), K + : Na + homeostasis (Porcel et al, 2012), carbon-use efficiency (Eroğlu et al, 2020), photosynthesis (Chen et al, 2017), and antioxidant system (Ye et al, 2019). The protective effects of AMF against plant abiotic stress have been well demonstrated in various plants (Goswami & Deka, 2020).…”