Influence of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungus and Kinetin on the Response of Mungbean Plants to Irrigation by Seawater

Abstract

An experiment was carried out to investigate the effects of pre-inoculation with the mycorrhizal fungus Glomus clarum and foliar application of kinetin on the growth of mungbean plant irrigated wht different dilutions of seawater. Arbuscular-mycorrhizal (AM) infection significantly increased dry weight, height, chlorophyll, sugar and protein content, nitrogen and phosphorus-use efficiencies, leaf conductivity, transpiration rate, nitrogenase, acid and alkaline phosphates activities of all salinized mungbean plants in comparison with control and non-mycorrhizal plants irrespective of the presence or absence of kinetin. Mycorrrhizal plants showed higher concentrations of N, P, K, Ca and Mg and lower Na/N, Na/P, Na/K, Na/Ca and Na/ Mg ratios than non-mycorrhizal plants when irrigated with certain dilutions of seawater Mungbean plants showed 597% and 770% dependency on AM fungus G. clarum in absence and presence of kinetin, respectively, for biomass production under a level of 30% of seawater. The average value of tolerance index for mycorrhizal plants accounted 267% and 364% in absence and presence kinetin respectively. This study provides evidence for the benefits of kinetin which are actually known for mycorrhizal than non-mycorrhzal plants. AM fungus and kinetin protected the host plants against the detrimental effects of salt. However, mycorrhizal infection was much more effective than kinetin applications. Thus management applications of this arbuscular mycorrhizal endophyte (G. clarum) with kinetin could be of importance in using seawater in certain dilutions for irrigation in agriculture.