Abstract

Increasing water use efficiency (WUE) in crops is critical to maintaining agricultural production under climate change-exacerbated drought. One of these approaches may consist of leveraging on the beneficial interactions between crops and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). In this study, we investigated how inoculation with AMF from three different taxa (Claroideoglomus etunicatum (T1), Gigaspora margarita (T2), and Rhizophagus irregularis (T3)) and their combination (T123) and a non-inoculated “control” treatment in a greenhouse could achieve increased biomass production and water use efficiency in cassava under three levels of water availability (100% PC, 60%—moderate stress, and 30%—severe stress). Whereas T1 and T2 resulted in a lower growth rate for the plants than the control, T123 enhanced cassava height and the number of petioles and leaves. T123 and T3 increased the total plant dry biomass in comparison with uninoculated plants by 30% and 26%, respectively. The T123 and plants inoculated with T3 significantly increased cassava above-ground biomass by 19% as compared to T1 (8.68 ± 2.44 g) and T2 (8.68 ± 2.44 g) inoculated plants. T123 resulted in higher WUE, which was validated by the leaf carbon (δ¹³C) isotopic signature, significantly outperforming cassava with T1 and T2, yet there was no difference between the control and T3. Overall, this study demonstrated that the use of multiple AMF from different taxa can increase cassava growth and WUE under greenhouse conditions.

Graphical Abstract

中文翻译：

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丛枝菌根真菌的多种类群接种剂提高了木薯（Manihot esculenta）的定殖频率、生物量产量和水分利用效率

摘要

提高作物水分利用效率（WUE）对于在气候变化加剧干旱的情况下维持农业生产至关重要。其中一种方法可能包括利用作物和丛枝菌根真菌（AMF）之间的有益相互作用。在本研究中，我们研究了如何接种来自三种不同类群（Claroideoglomus etunicatum (T1)、Gigaspora margarita (T2) 和Rhizophagus irreparrisis (T3)）及其组合 (T123) 的 AMF 以及未接种的“对照”治疗在三种可用水水平（100% PC、60%——中度胁迫和30%——重度胁迫）下，温室可以提高木薯的生物量产量和水分利用效率。T1 和 T2 导致植物生长速率低于对照，而 T123 则提高了木薯高度以及叶柄和叶子的数量。与未接种的植物相比，T123和T3的植物总干生物量分别增加了30%和26%。与 T1 (8.68 ± 2.44 g) 和 T2 (8.68 ± 2.44 g) 接种植物相比，T123 和接种 T3 的植物显着增加了木薯地上生物量 19%。T123 产生更高的 WUE，这通过叶子碳 (δ ¹³ C) 同位素特征得到验证，显着优于 T1 和 T2 木薯，但对照和 T3 之间没有差异。总体而言，本研究表明，使用来自不同类群的多种 AMF 可以提高温室条件下木薯的生长和 WUE。

图形概要