Abstract
Soil salinity is one of the major obstacles that is limiting the growth and yield of groundnut. This study aims to investigate the effect of growth-promoting fungi, Trichoderma, on groundnut plants that were cultivated in saline conditions. Five different Trichoderma isolates were grown in four different NaCl concentrations. Selected Trichoderma were then applied to the groundnut seeds and their growth and development were monitored during the study. Growth inhibition, volatile organic compounds, chlorophylls, carotenoids, total phenolics and flavonoids, and minerals were assessed between the Trichoderma treatments. Increasing the salt concentration from 0.25–0.75 M decreased the growth of the Trichoderma isolates. The amounts and profiles of the volatile organic compounds from the T. asperellum isolate were significantly different to those in the T. virens isolate. In the vegetative growth stage, increased chlorophyll content was recorded in both the T. asperellum and T. virens-treated groundnut. The leaves that were obtained from the groundnut that was treated with T. virens T.v4 contained significantly higher indole-3-acetic acid (420 µg IAA/g) than the same plants’ roots (113.3 µg IAA/g). Compared to the control groundnut, the T. asperellum T.a8-treated groundnut showed increased phenolics (31%) and flavonoids (43%) and increased shoots and biomass weight at the generative growth stage. This study demonstrates that Trichoderma, with their plant growth promotion ability, could potentially be used to improve the growth of groundnut growing under salinity stress. Importantly, salt-tolerant Trichoderma could be regarded as a beneficial and sustainable way to improve the survival of salt-sensitive crops.
Highlights
Soil salinity is a limiting factor for plant growth and yield [1]
At the lowest salt concentration (0.25 M of NaCl), T. virens T.v3 and T.v4 suffered from the salinity stress; this is indicated by their having a higher rate of growth inhibition (22.2–22.4%) compared to the T. asperellum T.a1, T.a5, and T.a8 isolates (7.8–10.9%)
The T. asperellum T. a1, T.a5, and T.a8 isolates exhibited growth inhibition rates ranging from 53–59% when treated with 0.75 M of NaCl, which were lower than that of T. virens T.v4
Summary
Soil salinity is a limiting factor for plant growth and yield [1]. The impacts of soil salinity are exacerbated by low rainfall, high temperature, and the salt concentration inside. Sustainability 2021, 13, 13226 the plant cells caused by concentration and exposure time [3,4]. The accumulation of salt in the rhizosphere causes changes in the osmotic pressure and ion uptake balance, membrane dysfunction, and cell dehydration. It alters water uptake and absorption through the roots, water use efficiency, relative water content, leaf water potential, and transpiration rate [6,7,8,10,11,12]
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