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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Abiotic Stress
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1428631

Exploring 1 Rice Tolerance to Salinity and Drought Stress through Piriformospora indica Inoculation: Understanding Physiological and Metabolic Adaptations

Provisionally accepted
Ali Raeisi Vanani Ali Raeisi Vanani 1*Fatemeh Sheikhi Shahrivar Fatemeh Sheikhi Shahrivar 2Amin Nouri Amin Nouri 3Mozhgan Sepehri Mozhgan Sepehri 4
  • 1 Department of Soil Science, College of Agriculture, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran
  • 2 Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, United States
  • 3 Department of Research and Development, Monty’s Plant Food, Louisville, KY, United States
  • 4 Department of Soil Science, College of Agriculture, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Drought and salinity are significant challenges to global food security. This study investigated the interactive impacts of Piriformospora indica inoculation with salinity and drought stresses on rice. Two greenhouse experiments were conducted. The first experiment evaluated two P. indica inoculation levels and three salinity levels (0-, 50-, and 100-mM sodium chloride), while the subsequent experiment assessed two inoculation levels under three drought intensities (25%, 50%, and 100% of available water content). P. indica spores were inoculated following optimized seed disinfection and germination processes. The shoot and root biomass under salinity stress were consistently higher in inoculated plants compared to controls. Sodium concentrations in shoots and roots exhibited an overall upward trend, with the trend being less pronounced in inoculated plants due to increased potassium uptake. Under salinity stress, nitrogen, magnesium, and calcium concentrations significantly increased in inoculated plants. With increasing salinity, there was a significant increase in catalase enzyme activity and soluble carbohydrate concentrations across all treatments, with a greater increase in inoculated plants. Plants under drought stress experienced reduced root and shoot biomass, but inoculated plants maintained higher biomass. Increasing drought stress led to decreased nitrogen, magnesium, and calcium concentrations in all treatments, with the reduction being less severe in inoculated plants. Catalase enzyme activity and carbohydrate increased with rising drought stress, with the increase being more pronounced in inoculated plants compared to non-inoculated ones. By promoting plant growth, nutrient uptake, and stress tolerance, P. indica inoculation has a significant potential to enhance crop productivity in extreme climate conditions. Abbreviations: Completely Randomized Design (CRD), Available Water Content (AWC), Field Capacity (FC). Permanent Wilting Point (PWP), Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF)

    Keywords: piriformospora indica, Inoculation, Fungi, salinity stress, Drought stress, rice, Catalase enzyme, Nutrients

    Received: 06 May 2024; Accepted: 30 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Raeisi Vanani, Sheikhi Shahrivar, Nouri and Sepehri. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Ali Raeisi Vanani, Department of Soil Science, College of Agriculture, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, 84156-83111, Isfahan, Iran

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.