Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and biochar improves drought tolerance in chickpea |
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| Authors: | Abeer Hashem Ashwani Kumar Abeer M Al-Dbass Abdulaziz A Alqarawi Al-Bandari Fahad Al-Arjani Garima Singh Muhammad Farooq Elsayed Fathi Abd_Allah |
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| Institution: | 1. Botany and Microbiology Department, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box. 2460, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia;2. Mycology and Plant Disease Survey Department, Plant Pathology Research Institute, ARC, Giza 12511, Egypt;3. Metagenomics and Secretomics Research Laboratory, Department of Botany, Dr. Harisingh Gour University (A Central University), Sagar, M.P. 470003, India;4. Biochemistry Department, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box. 2460, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia;5. Plant Production Department, College of Food and Agricultural Sciences, King Saud University, P.O. Box. 2460, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia;6. Department of Biotechnology, Aizawl, Mizoram University, Mizoram, India;7. Department of Crop Sciences, College of Agricultural and Marine Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Al-Khoud 123, Oman;8. The UWA Institute of Agriculture and School of Agriculture & Environment, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA 6001, Australia;9. Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad 38040, Pakistan |
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| Abstract: | Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) inoculation and biochar amendment has been reported to improve growth of several crop plants however their role in stress amelioration individually as well as in combination has not been worked out. This experiment was conducted to evaluate the application of AMF and biochar on the performance of chickpea under drought stress. The treatments included the individual as well as combined treatment of AMF and biochar to drought stressed and normal chickpea plants. Plants inoculation improved growth in terms of shoot and root length, leaf area and number of branches which was observed to show a steep decline due to drought stress. Drought declined the AMF colonization potential though biochar amendment ameliorated the negative effects of drought significantly by improving the spore population, number of mycelium, vesicle and arbuscules and the percentage of colonization as well. Increased chlorophyll synthesis in biochar and AMF treated plants was obvious, which lead to significant enhancement in the net photosynthetic efficiency. Drought stress also declined the relative water content (RWC) and membrane stability index (MSI), while treatment of biochar and AMF either individually or in combination mitigated the deleterious effects to considerable extent and caused a significant enhancement in RWC and MSI under normal conditions. Amendments with biochar and AMF inoculation increased the nitrogen fixation attributes including the number and weight of nodules, leghemoglobin content and activity of nitrate reductase enzyme leading to greater uptake and assimilation of nitrogen in them when compared to drought stressed plants. Drought stressed chickpea plants exhibited considerable reduction in uptake of nitrogen and phosphorous which was ameliorated by biochar and AMF treatments. It could be suggested that increase in growth and physiological attributes in chickpea due to biochar amendments and AMF inoculation under drought stress were plausibly due to their involvement in nitrogen and phosphorous uptake, chlorophyll synthesis and photosynthesis. |
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| Keywords: | Biochar Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi Membrane stability index Nitrogen fixation Photosynthesis Drought Corresponding author at: Botany and Microbiology Department College of Science King Saud University P O Box 2460 Riyadh 11451 Saudi Arabia |
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