Book with abstracts from the COST Action 0905 meeting in ... - UMB

SALINITY AND MYCORRHIZAL SYMBIOSIS: IMPORTANT
DETERMINANTS OF WHEAT ZINC EFFICIENCY IN ARID SOIL
Forough Aghili 1 , Emmnauel Frossard 1 , Rainer Schulin 2 , Amir Khoshgoftar 3 , Majid Afyuni 3 ,
Hannes Gamper 1 , Jan Jansa 1
1 Group of Plant Nutrition, ETH Zurich, Institute of Plant, Animal and Agroecosystem
Sciences, Eschikon 33, 8315 Lindau, Switzerland
2 Group of Soil Protection, ETH Zurich, Institute of Terrestrial Ecosystems, Universitätstrasse
16, 8092 Zurich, Switzerland
3 Department of Soil Science, College of Agriculture, Technical University, 84154 Isfahan,
Iran
Key Words: arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi, Iran, micronutrient deficiency, salinity,
wheat
Wheat is a main staple crop in Iran and grain Zn concentration is a critical quality feature for
human nutrition. Soil is the primary Zn source for plants and factors such as soil Zn
availability, plant genotype, mineral nutrition and activity of microbes in the rhizosphere
(especially the mycorrhizal fungi), all affect Zn uptake by plants. In a series of pot
experiments using local wheat genotypes, we showed that the following soil factors (in order
of importance) were limiting growth of wheat at Rudasht, central Iran: 1. High salinity, 2. Low
N status, 3. Low P availability, and 4. Low Zn availability. Furthermore, we showed that
management interventions like soil flushing in order to reduce salinity as well as different
fertilization treatments had profound effects on the community structure of indigenous
arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in wheat roots. These induced shifts in community structure may
have translated into different mycorrhizal activities that could explain a differential response
to different soil salinity levels by two wheat genotypes in Zn use efficiency.