Abstract
Synthetic chemical fertilizers are a fundamental source of nutrition for agricultural crops; however, their limited availability, low plant uptake, and excessive application have caused severe ecological imbalances. In addition, the gravity of environmental stresses, such as salinity and water stress, has already exceeded the threshold limit. Therefore, the optimization of nutrient efficiency in terms of plant uptake is crucial for sustainable agricultural production. To address these challenges, we isolated the rhizospheric fungus Curvularia lunata ARJ2020 (AR11) and screened the optimum doses of biochar, silicon, and potassium phosphate (K2HPO4), and used them—individually or jointly—to treat rice plants subjected to salt (150 mM) and drought stress (20–40% soil moisture). Bioassay analysis revealed that AR11 is a highly halotolerant and drought-resistant strain with an innate ability to produce gibberellin (GA1, GA3, GA4, and GA7) and organic acids (i.e., acetic, succinic, tartaric, and malic acids). In the plant experiment, the co-application of AR11 + Biochar + Si + K2HPO4 significantly improved rice growth under both salt and drought stresses. The plant growth regulator known as abscisic acid, was significantly reduced in co-application-treated rice plants exposed to both drought and salt stress conditions. These plants showed higher Si (80%), P (69%), and K (85%) contents and a markedly low Na+ ion (208%) concentration. The results were further validated by the higher expression of the Si-carrying gene OsLSi1, the salt-tolerant gene OsHKT2, and the OsGRAS23’s drought-tolerant transcriptome. Interestingly, the beneficial effect of AR11 was significantly higher than that of the co-application of Biochar + Si + K2HPO4 under drought. Moreover, the proline content of AR11-treated plants decreased significantly, and an enhancement of plant growth-promoting characteristics was observed. These results suggest that the integrated co-application of biochar, chemical fertilizers, and microbiome could mitigate abiotic stresses, stimulate the bioavailability of essential nutrients, relieve phytotoxicity, and ultimately enhance plant growth.
Highlights
Sustainable agricultural practices have been recognized as a pragmatic economic approach to attain the goal of food security (Francis and Porter, 2011)
Isolate AR11 was identified as a Curvularia lunata strain and was submitted to the NCBI database as Curvularia lunata ARJ2020, with accession number MZ145250
The results of the current study showed that the plant growth was tremendously improved with the combined application of Si, PK, AR11, and biochar
Summary
Sustainable agricultural practices have been recognized as a pragmatic economic approach to attain the goal of food security (Francis and Porter, 2011). One of the biggest challenges for the sustainability transitions is the management of chemical fertilizers and environmental stresses, such as drought and salinity (Butcher et al, 2016; Mark Ibekwe et al, 2017). By the first half of the twenty first century, water drought events will dramatically worsen, reaching record levels never seen before in the history of mankind (Premanandh, 2011). Forecasts predict a 1.3-fold increase in water requirements in the agricultural sector by 2025 (Premanandh, 2011). The world’s population is rapidly increasing and is expected to reach nine billion by 2050 (Fariduddin et al, 2019). In these scenarios, the mitigation of salt stress and droughts is crucial to overcome the probable risk of food insecurity (Zhai et al, 2019)
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