Alleviation of drought stress of marigold (Tagetes erecta) plants by using arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi

Abstract

The effect of an arbuscular mycorrhizal fungus "AMF" (Glomus constrictum Trappe) on growth, pigments, and phosphorous content of marigold (Tagetes erecta) plant grown under different levels of drought stress was investigated. The applied drought stress levels reduced growth vigor (i.e. plant height, shoot dry weight, flower diameter as well as its fresh and dry weights) of mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal plant as compared to control plant (non-drought stressed plant). The presence of mycorrhizal fungus, however, stimulated all growth parameters of the treated plant comparing to non-mycorrhizal treated plant. The photosynthetic pigments (carotene in flowers and chlorophylls a and b in leaves) were also stimulated by the mycorrhizal fungi of well-watered as well as of water-stressed plants. The total pigments of mycorrhizal plants grown under well-watered conditions were higher than those of non-mycorrhizal ones by 60%. In most cases, drought-stressed mycorrhizal plants were significantly better than those of the non-mycorrhizal plants. So, the overall results suggest that mycorrhizal fungal colonization affects host plant positively on growth, pigments, and phosphorous content, flower quality and thereby alleviates the stress imposed by water with holding.

Trap Culture Technique for Propagation of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi using Different Host Plants

“…In addition to plant growth, AMF also help plants to withstand various environmental stress including salinity (Abdel Latef and Chaoxing 2011;Navarro et al, 2012), drought (Asrar and Elhindi 2011) and protects plant from pathogen attack (Nair et al, 2014). Hajiboland et al (2010) reported that the mycorrhizal inoculation increased tomato plant growth at 5 dS m -1 salinity.…”

Alleviation of Mycorrhiza to Magnesium Deficiency in Trifoliate Orange: Changes in Physiological Activity

“…It seems that the AM effect on carotenoid is more important in Mg-D than in Mg-S. In fact, carotenoids can protect photosynthetic apparatus against oxidative damage, as well quench excited triple state of chlorophyll in plants (Asrar and Elhindi, 2011.). Xiao et al (2014) confirmed greater photosynthesis of Newhall and Ponkan seedlings inoculated with Glomus versiforme under Mg-D conditions.…”

Response of soybean (Glycine max) to molybdenum and iron spray under well-watered and water deficit conditions

“…These changes induced various effects on growth and yield parameters of the crops (Reisdorph & Koster, 1999). Many studies showed inhibitory effects of drought stress on different plant properties, such as grain yield in maize (Ebrahimian & Bybordi, 2011); growth and productivity in sunflower, fresh and dry weights in shoot and flowers of marigold (Tagetes erecta L.) and Asian red sage (Asrar & Elhindi, 2011;Liu et al, 2011) and yield reduction due to limited growth in bread wheat (Abbas et al, 2009). In soybean, biological nitrogen fixation carried out by bacterium Bradyrhizobium sps., it was reported that drought condition adversely affect the biological nitrogen fixation in this crop.…”