Influence of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal (AM) Fungi and Salinity on Seedling Growth, Solute Accumulation, and Mycorrhizal Dependency of Jatropha curcas L.

Production of Jatropha curcas as a biodiesel feedstock on marginal lands is growing rapidly. Biomass production on these lands is limited. Hence, the objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM) fungi and salinity (0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4, and 0.5% NaCl) on (1) seedling growth, leaf relative water content (RWC), lipid peroxidation, solute accumulation (proline and sugars), and photosynthetic pigments (Chl a and b) of Jatropha; (2) mycorrhizal colonization (%) and mycorrhizal dependency (MD) of Jatropha; and (3) glomalin content (Bradford reactive soil protein) in soil. Increased soil salinity significantly (P < 0.05) decreased AM root colonization (r ² = 0.98) of AM-inoculated plants and decreased survival (r ² = 0.93) and growth (shoot length, r ² = 0.89; tap root length, r ² = 0.93; shoot diameter, r ² = 0.99; shoot dry weight, r ² = 0.92; and root dry weight, r ² = 0.92) of non-AM-inoculated Jatropha. Under salt stress, AM-inoculated Jatropha plants had greater dry weight of shoots and roots, better leaf water status, less leaf membrane damage (low lipid peroxidation activity), higher solute (proline and sugars), and higher leaf chlorophyll concentrations than non-AM-inoculated plants. The mycorrhizal dependency (MD) of Jatropha increased from 12.13 to 20.84% with salinity (0–0.4% NaCl). Root AM colonization (%) and glomalin content in soil were negatively correlated with salinity (P < 0.05, r = −0.95). We conclude that inoculation with AM fungi lessens the deleterious effect of salt stress on seedling growth parameters under salt levels up to 0.5% NaCl (electrical conductivity of 7.2 dS m⁻¹). Inoculation of Jatropha seedlings with AM fungi can promote the establishment of Jatropha under NaCl-induced stress.