The enhancement of drought tolerance for pigeon pea inoculated by arbuscular mycorrhizae fungi

G. Qiao, X.P. Wen, L.F. Yu and X.B. Ji
Additional contact information
G. Qiao: Guizhou Key Laboratory of Agricultural Bioengineering, Guizhou University, Guiyang, P.R. China
X.P. Wen: Guizhou Key Laboratory of Agricultural Bioengineering, Guizhou University, Guiyang, P.R. China
L.F. Yu: School of Forestry Science, Guizhou University, Guiyang, P.R. China
X.B. Ji: Guizhou Key Laboratory of Agricultural Bioengineering, Guizhou University, Guiyang, P.R. China

Plant, Soil and Environment, 2011, vol. 57, issue 12, 541-546

Abstract: Pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) has been rapidly grown in the drought-striken Karst regions of southwest China. Present research aimed to investigate the effects of arbuscular mycorrhizae (AM) on the drought tolerance of pigeon pea, as well as to elucidate the physiological responses of AM-colonized seedlings to the water deficit. As subjected to drought stress, AM symbiosis (AMD) highly led to the positive effects on root system, plant height and stem diameter. AMD demonstrated a remarkably higher chlorophyll content, photosynthetic rate and stomatal conductance. The soluble sugar in AMD was significantly higher than that of the non-AM seedlings (NAMD), indicating the enhanced tolerance at least partially correlated with osmotic solute. Conversely, the proline (Pro) of AMD was lower, revealing the excessive Pro was not imperative for drought tolerance. After 30 days drought stress, AMD gave around a third less lipid peroxides than that of NAMD. Rather, the root activities of AMD were significantly higher than that of the latter after 10 days drought stress. Thereby, AM fungi might substantially elevate the tolerance to drought of pigeon pea, and the cumulative effects contributed to the enhanced tolerance. To date, this has been the first report concerning the enhancement of drought tolerance via AM colonization in this legume species.

Keywords: arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi; drought stress; osmotic solute; photosynthesis; pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://pse.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/116/2011-PSE.html (text/html)
http://pse.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/116/2011-PSE.pdf (application/pdf)
free of charge

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:caa:jnlpse:v:57:y:2011:i:12:id:116-2011-pse

DOI: 10.17221/116/2011-PSE

Access Statistics for this article

Plant, Soil and Environment is currently edited by Kateřina Součková

More articles in Plant, Soil and Environment from Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Ivo Andrle ().