Abstract
Abiotic constraints such as water deficit reduce cereal production. Plants have different strategies against these stresses to improve plant growth, physiological metabolism and crop production. For example, arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM)—bread wheat association has been shown to improve tolerance to drought stress conditions. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of AM inoculation on plant characteristics, lipid peroxidation, solute accumulation, water deficit saturation, photosynthetic activity, total phenol secretion and enzymatic activities including peroxidise (PO) and polyphenol oxidase (PPO) in two bread wheat cultivars (PAN3497 and SST806) under well-watered and drought-stressed conditions in plants grown under greenhouse conditions, to determine whether AM can enhance drought tolerance in wheat. AM inoculation improved morphological and physiological parameters in plants under stress. The leaf number increased by 35% and 5%, tiller number by 25% and 23%, chlorophyll content by 7% and 10%, accumulation of soluble sugars by 33% and 14%, electrolyte leakage by 26% and 32%, PPO by 44% and 47% and PO by 30% and 37% respectively, in PAN3497 and SST806, respectively. However, drought stress decreased proline content by 20% and 24%, oxidative damage to lipids measured as malondialdehyde by 34% and 60%, and total phenol content by 55% and 40% respectively, in AM treated plants of PAN3497 and SST806. PAN3497 was generally more drought-sensitive than SST806. This study showed that AM can contribute to protect plants against drought stress by alleviating water deficit induced oxidative stress.
Highlights
Drought stress is the single largest abiotic stress factor leading to reduced cereal yields [1]
The present study investigated the effect of arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) inoculation on bread wheat cultivars under drought stress conditions for morphological, physiological, and oxidative metabolism changes
The highest amelioration was noted for leaf number after 45 days of stress, where the increase was 35% and 39% for PAN3497 and SST806, respectively
Summary
Drought stress is the single largest abiotic stress factor leading to reduced cereal (rice, wheat and maize) yields [1]. In 2013, approximately 65 million ha of wheat was affected by drought stress [2]. Grain yield of wheat has been reported to decline by as much as 60% because of drought stress [6]. In this context, many studies focused on ways to secure food production in the future [8]. It was reported that plants cope with drought stress by developing drought avoidance and/or drought tolerance mechanisms, which include osmotic adjustment, regulation of stomatal conductance and photosynthesis, production of antioxidant and scavenger compounds, or regulation of water uptake and flow in their tissues [9,10]
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