Mycorrhiza Fungus <em>Rhizophagus intraradices </em>Mediates Drought Tolerance in <em>Eleusine coracana</em> Seedlings

Abstract

Under abiotic stress conditions, arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi help plants by improving nutrient and water uptake. Finger millet is an arid crop having soils with poor water holding capacity. Therefore, it is difficult for the plants to obtain water and mineral nutrients from the soil to sustain life. To understand the role of mycorrhizal symbiosis in water and mineral up-take from the soil, we studied the role of Rhizophagus intraradices colonization and its beneficial role for drought stress tolerance in finger millet seedling. Under severe drought stress condition, AM inoculation led to the significant increase in plant growth (7%), phosphorus, and chlorophyll content (29%). Also, the level of osmolytes including proline and soluble sugars were found in higher quantities in AM inoculated seedlings under drought stress. Under water stress, the lipid peroxidation in leaves of mycorrhized seedlings was reduced by 29%. The flavonoid content of roots in AM colonized seedlings was found 16% higher compared to the control, whereas the leaves were accumulated more phenol. Compared to the control, ascorbate level was found to be 25% higher in leaf tissue of AM inoculated seedlings. Moreover, glutathione (GSH) level was increased in mycorrhiza inoculated seedlings with a maximum increment of 182% under severe stress. The results demonstrated that AM provided drought tolerance to the finger millet seedlings through a stronger root system, greater photosynthetic efficiency, a more efficient antioxidant system and improved osmoregulation.

Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi Regulate MAPK Pathway Genes Expression and Enhance Drought Tolerance of Populus Simonii × P. Nigra Seedlings

“…In the existing studies, the results about the changes of proline of mycorrhizal plants under drought stress are inconsistent. Studies by Zhang et al [36] on Eriobotrya japonica and Tyagi et al [37] on Eleusine coracana showed that the roots of AM plants accumulated more proline versus non-mycorrhizal plants under drought stress, and lipid peroxides of mycorrhizal plants were less than non-mycorrhizal plants under drought stress.…”

Microbes in Cahoots with Plants: MIST to Hit the Jackpot of Agricultural Productivity during Drought

“…Ascorbate and glutathione levels were recorded higher in Poncirus trifoliata trees colonized by Glomus versiforme in contrast to uninoculated trees during a drought period of 12 days [64]. Research studies in mycorrhizal ( Rhizophagus intraradices ) inoculated Eleusine seedlings revealed 16% higher flavonoid content and 25% higher ascorbate level in the leaves during drought stress [65]. In addition glutathione content was also recorded to be higher in AM inoculated seedlings.…”

Interactive Influence of Soil and Plant Genotypes on Mycorrhizal Dependency in Finger Millet

“…Furthermore, improvement in the production of finger millet could be helpful in the food production systems in Asian countries (Thilakarathna and Raizada 2015). Improvement in plant growth, nutrition uptake, tolerance to drought, and metal toxicity in finger millet using different AM fungal species have been well documented (Patil et al 2013;Tyagi et al 2018). Moreover, Tewari et al (1993) investigated the potential of AM fungal species for improving the growth of five different cultivars of finger millet using six commercial nonindigenous AM fungal isolates individually in unrealistic sterilized soil conditions.…”