Question

. role of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (amf) in salinity tolerance and growth response in plants under salt stress conditions

Answer 1

Salt stress is a major agricultural problem all over the world, which has an effect on the functioning of growth and physiology of crop plants. Salinity in soil reduces plant growth by decreasing net photosynthesis rate and stomatal conductance; it also inhibits antioxidant enzyme index. Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF) are one of the root symbionts which play a vital role in enhancing the crop plant growth and help the host plant in developing tolerance against abiotic stress factors like salt, drought, etc. This chapter aims to evaluate the beneficial role of AMF on plant growth and physiological performance under salinity stress conditions. AMF help to enhance the plant growth, by increasing plant biomass, photosynthetic activity water potential, and selective uptake of nutrients under salinity stress condition. AMF reduce the adverse effect of salt stress by increasing antioxidant defense mechanism in response to salinity stress conditions and promote salinity tolerance in crop plants. AMF mitigate the salt-induced deleterious effects by virtue of maintaining the osmotic balance by regulating the Na+ ad K+ratio. AMF also help in maintaining osmotic adjustment in host plants by inducing the synthesis of various osmolytics like proline, glycine betaine, etc. Thus, tolerant AMF species can be used as bioinoculant to improve agricultural productivity under salinity stress conditions.