Abstract
Salt stress is one of the serious abiotic stressors which limit the growth and development of important crops in agricultural lands. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) have been implemented as a strategy to mitigate the adverse effects due to an impact of salt stress through the structural and physiological adjustment. This study aimed to determine a relationship between salinity levels (0, 150, 300, and 450 mM NaCl) and AMF treatments (Glomus manihotis, Glomus etunicatum, and G. manihotis + G. etunicatum) to the salt tolerance of Leucaena leucocephala seedlings in a greenhouse. Salinity reduced the plant height, biomass, and root colonization by AMF. However, the inoculation of AMF, especially the consortium, ameliorated the negative effects by stabilizing the growth performance and supporting the photosynthetic outputs through optimum nutrient and mineral absorptions. These results were indicative through a significant interaction between salinity levels and the types of AMF treatment in all parameters except in the total leaf protein and proline contents from the two-way ANOVA results. Root colonization was highly correlated with the plant height, biomass, and total carbohydrate content with a maximum contribution conferred by the AMF consortium, based on Pearson’s correlation coefficient test and PCA analysis. Our study then showed the positive impact of AMF toward salt tolerance by L. leucocephala with potential application and cultivation in salt-stressed ecosystems.
Highlights
Conversion of agriculture land into human settlement and industry has led to the decrease territory of arable lands
Glomus sp1 was identified as Glomus manihotis while Glomus sp2 was identified as Glomus etunicatum compared to the DNA sequence of Archaeospora trappei as an outgroup (Figure 2)
Results obtained after 1 month of growing L. leucocephala in greenhouse showed that the increasing NaCl concentration caused significant reduction to plant height of L. leucocephala seedlings from 21.5% (150 mM) to 44.6% (450 mM) compared to controls at 0 mM (Figure 3). e biomass of L. leucocephala experienced significant reduction from 20.96% (150 mM) to 61.35% (450 mM) compared to controls at 0 mM (Figure 4)
Summary
Conversion of agriculture land into human settlement and industry has led to the decrease territory of arable lands. Upcoming climate change with consequences on the rise of sea level, sea water intrusion, and high evaporation was regarded as a major environmental issue which posed some challenges in the cultivation of economical crops [1]. E consequence of this land conversion has directed farmers to utilize marginal lands such as saline soils [2]. Saline soils are characterized by their high salt content (NaCl, Na2CO3, Na2SO4) with electric conductivity >4 dS/ m ≈40 mM NaCl which deter the optimum growth and development of many horticultural crops around the world [3]. Saline soils in Indonesia cover an area of 27,4 million ha with potential being utilized for cultivation of salt tolerant crops [4]. Some strategies have been employed to maximize the use of saline soils, one of which through the application of soil-borne microorganisms, such as bioamelioration by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) [6, 7]
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