Unravelling the Role of Piriformospora indica in Combating Water Deficiency by Modulating Physiological Performance and Chlorophyll Metabolism-Related Genes in Cucumis sativus

Horticulturae

Suzy M. Abdelaziz¹  Taha A. A. Ibrahim²  Emad A. Abdeldaym²  Mohamed E. Abdelaziz²  Mohamed A. M. Atia³  Mohamed Abdelsattar⁴ 

[1] Department of Cross-Pollinated Vegetable Crops, Horticulture Research Institute, Giza 12611, Egypt;Department of Vegetable, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Giza 12613, Egypt;Molecular Genetic and Genome Mapping Laboratory, Genome Mapping Department, Agriculture Genetic Engineering Research Institute (AGERI), Agriculture Research Centre (ARC), Giza 12619, Egypt;Plant Molecular Biology Department, Agricultural Genetic Engineering Research Institute (AGERI), Agricultural Research Center (ARC), Giza 12619, Egypt;

关键词: Piriformospora indica;    cucumber;    WUE;    chlorophyll;    water stress;    qRT-PCR;   

DOI  :  10.3390/horticulturae7100399

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Water stress is the most critical aspect restricting the development of agriculture in regions with scarce water resources, which requires enhancing irrigation water-saving strategies. The current work discusses the potential application of the plant-strengthening root endophyte Piriformospora indica against moderate (25% less irrigation water) and severe (50% less irrigation water) water stress in comparison to the optimum irrigation conditions of greenhouse cucumbers. P. indica improved growth, nutrient content, and photosynthesis apparatus under normal or water-stress conditions. On the other hand, moderate and severe water stress reduced yield up to 47% and 83%, respectively, in non-colonized cucumber plants, while up to 28 and 78%, respectively, in P. indica-colonized plants. In terms of water-use efficiency (WUE), P. indica improved the WUE of colonized cucumber plants grown under moderate (26 L/kg) or severe stress (73 L/kg) by supporting colonized plants in producing higher yield per unit volume of water consumed by the crop in comparison to non-colonized plants under the same level of moderate (43 L/kg) or severe (81 L/kg) water stress. Furthermore, P. indica increased the indole-3-acetic acid (IAA) content, activity levels of catalase (CAT) and peroxidase (POD) with an apparent clear reduction in the abscisic acid (ABA), ethylene, malondialdehyde (MDA), proline contents and stomatal closure compared to non-stressed plants under both water-stress levels. In addition, chlorophyll a, b, a + b contents were increased in the leaves of the colonized plants under water-stress conditions. This improvement in chlorophyll content could be correlated with a significant increment in the transcripts of chlorophyll biosynthesis genes (protochlorophyllide oxidoreductase [POR], chlorophyll a oxygenase [CAO]) and a reduction in the chlorophyll degradation genes (PPH, pheophorbide a oxygenase [PAO], and red chlorophyll catabolite reductase [RCCR]). In conclusion, P. indica has the potential to enhance the cucumber yield grown under moderate water stress rather than severe water stress by improving WUE and altering the activity levels of antioxidant enzymes and chlorophyll metabolism-related genes.

【 授权许可】

Unknown