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