INDIAN SCIENCE CONGRESS - India Environment Portal

Section XIV : Plant Sciences 59
75. Mitigation of salt stress in Trigonella foenum-graecum by inoculation
with Glomus intraradices
Heikham Evelin, *Bhoopander Giri and Rupam Kapoor
Applied Mycology Laboratory, Department of Botany,
University of Delhi,
Delhi-110 007
*Swami Shraddhand College,
University of Delhi,
Alipur-110 036
Keywords : Salt stress, inoculation, AM
The productivity and spatial distribution of plants, particularly many agronomical
and horticultural crop plants of commercial importance, are severely affected by a
variety of environmental factors. Among these factors, drought and salt play very
significant roles in reducing agricultural production worldwide. High salt concentrations
cause ion imbalance and hyperosmotic stress in plants. As a consequence,
secondary stress reactions such as oxidative damage occur. Ionic imbalance occurs
due to excessive accumulation of Na + and Cl - , which reduces the uptake of other
mineral nutrients, such as, K + , Ca 2+ , and Mn 2+ . Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi
(AMF) are obligately symbiotic soil fungi that colonize the roots of the majority of
plants. AM fungi widely exist in salt-affected soils. Many studies have demonstrated
that, inoculation with AMF the plant receives a variety of benefits that may
result in increased growth, improved water relations, enhanced nutrient uptake over
non-inoculated control plants. In pursuit of a better understanding of salt stressarbuscular
mycorrhiza interaction, an experiment was conducted with varying
concentration of NaCl (0, 50, 100 and 200 mM) on Trigonella foenum-graecum
L. (fenugreek) inoculated with Glomus intraradices. Growth, nutrient concentration
and membrane integrity were studied as physiological parameters as they
represent a first step towards gaining understanding of mycorrhizal plants to initial
NaCl-stress. Trigonella plants inoculated with the AM fungus showed better
growth and higher fresh and dry weights. Concentrations of chlorophyll a, b and
carotenoids and soluble sugars were higher than in non-mycorrhizal plants under
given NaCl concentration. Mycorrhizal plants maintained higher K + /Na + ratio,
higher concentration of Ca 2+ .