Abstract
Tea plants are sensitive to soil moisture deficit, with the level of soil water being a critical factor affecting their growth and quality. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) can improve water and nutrient absorption, but it is not clear whether AMF can improve the photosynthetic characteristics of tea plants. A potted study was conducted to determine the effects of Claroideoglomus etunicatum on plant growth, leaf water status, pigment content, gas exchange, and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters in Camellia sinensis cv. Fuding Dabaicha under well-watered (WW) and drought stress (DS) conditions. Root mycorrhizal colonization and soil hyphal length were significantly reduced by the eight-week DS treatment. AMF inoculation displayed a significant increase in shoot and root biomass production. The relative water content, leaf water potential, nitrogen balance index, pigment content, maximum photometric effect (Fv/Fm, QY_max), and steady-state photometric effect Y (II) (QY_Lss) decreased dramatically, while the leaf water saturation deficit and steady-state non-photochemical fluorescence quenching (NPQ_Lss) generally increased under DS conditions. Mycorrhizal treatment induced significantly higher relative water content, leaf water potential, nitrogen balance index, pigment (chlorophyll, flavonoid, and anthocyanin) content, net photosynthesis rate, transpiration rate, stomatal conductance, intercellular CO2 concentration, QY_max, and QY_Lss; however, it resulted in a lower leaf water saturation deficit and NPQ_Lss under both WW and DS conditions, as compared with non-mycorrhizal plants. These results imply that AMF promoted tea plant growth and alleviated negative effects of DS by promoting gas exchange, regulating the water status of leaves, and regulating photosynthetic parameters.
Highlights
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are widespread in soils and can establish symbioses with most vascular plants, influencing the soil microhabitat around plant roots and the forms of soil mineral nutrients present, and driving soil nutrient cycling (Cheng et al, 2021; Meng et al, 2020)
Changes in biomass production Compared with WW, Drought stress (DS) significantly reduced the tea stem fresh weight by 61.54% in mycorrhizal treatments, but it had no significant effect on leaf and root fresh weight (Fig. 1)
Root mycorrhizal colonization of tea seedlings by C. etunicatum was dramatically inhibited by the 8-week DS treatment
Summary
Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) are widespread in soils and can establish symbioses with most vascular plants, influencing the soil microhabitat around plant roots and the forms of soil mineral nutrients present, and driving soil nutrient cycling (Cheng et al, 2021; Meng et al, 2020). AMF can improve plant growth and development, root uptake capacity, stress tolerance, osmotic adjustment, and antioxidant capacity (Zou et al, 2021). Symbiosis between AMF and plant roots can improve crop yield and significantly contribute to plant growth and development, morphological establishment, and yield increases under adversity stress (Saboor et al, 2021). Ktze.) is a perennial evergreen woody plant in the Camelliaceae family. It is one of the important industrial crops in South Asia, and its growth and development are strictly tied to the external growth environment (Qian et al, 2018). Drought stress (DS) increases water loss rate (WLR) and decreases relative water content (RWC), dry mass, chlorophyll, carotenoid, and total leaf phenolic content and antioxidants such as ascorbate and glutathione in tea (Upadhyaya and Panda, 2013). Wang et al (2020) found that tea plants had smaller leaf area, fewer leaves, lower fresh and
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