The Effect of Two Species of Arbuscular Mycorrhiza Fungi on the Activity of Antioxidant Enzymes and Morphophysiological Characteristics of Mentha pulegium L. in Drought Stress

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 PhD student of Plant Physiology, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad

2 Assistant Professor, Khorasan-e-Razavi Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Mashhad, Iran

3 Department of Biology, Payame Noor University, Iran

Abstract

Drought stress as one of the most important environmental stresses, eventually leads to the restriction of growth and production of plants. Plant symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) reduces the effects of drought stress. In order to investigate the effect of mycorrhizal fungi on antioxidant enzymes activity and some morphological and physiological characteristics of Mentha pulegium L under drought stress, a pot experiment was conducted in a factorial experiment in the randomized complete design with three replications. Treatments included two levels of irrigation (60 and 100% crop capacity) and two species of mycorrhizal (Glomus mosseae and G. intraradices). The results showed that drought stress had significant effects on all measured traits, to the extent that the fresh and dry weight of the plant, relative water content, plant height, total chlorophyll content, and the percentage of root colonization, proline content and activity of peroxidase and superoxide dismutase were increased. The effects of mycorrhiza fungus on all of the measured traits were significant and improved the growth of the Mentha pulegium L. Results showed inoculation of mycorrhiza fungi improves plant resistance to drought stress via increasing of antioxidant compounds production and antioxidant enzymes activities.

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