Combined Effects of Inoculating Serendipita Indica on Soybean Growth and Soil Health Under Cd Stress

Abstract

Cadmium (Cd) pollution in the soil is a global environmental problem. Plants-microbial technology has been regarded as a potential technique for the remediation of Cd polluted soils. Here, we aimed to explore the combined effects of inoculating (Serendipita indica) S. indica on soybean growth and soil health under Cd stress. Therefore, a pot experiment was conducted to investigate the S. indica on soybean growth and the soil enzyme activities, pH and chemical forms of Cd in the soil under Cd 0, 10, 20, 30 mg/kg soil teatments. Results reflected that compared to non-inoculated ones, the application of S. indica can still enhance the dry weight (66.57%), shoot height (90.35%) and promote the net photosynthesis rate (72.18%), transpiration ratio (80.73%), and stomatal conductance (119.05%) photosynthesis of soybean under Cd 30 mg/kg soil. Furthermore, The pH, phosphatase (116.39%) and catalase (4.17%) activities in the S. indica treatments were increased under Cd 10 mg/kg soil. Meanwhile, inoculated S. indica treatments significantly shifted Cd from exchangeable fraction to other more stable fractions, primarily decreased Cd concentrations (23.66%) under Cd 20 mg/kg soil. The Cd pollution assessment in soil indicated that S. indica could effectively reduce Cd pollution in the Cd 10 mg/kg soil treatments. This work suggests that S. indica may be a potential method for not only promoting plant growth, but also relieving the phytotoxicity of Cd and remediating Cd contaminated soil.

Use of Serendipita indica to improve soybean growth, physiological properties, and soil enzymatic activities under different Cd concentrations

“…3, 4), which may be the reason for S. indica weakened the toxicity of Cd to soybean physiology and relieved the growth stress of soybean [44]. In addition, this reduction in the exchangeable fraction content caused by S. indica addition also reduced the degree and risk of soil contamination (Table 3), and the effect was most pronounced in the Cd 6 mg•kg −1 stress [45].…”