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Journal of Tea Science ›› 2024, Vol. 44 ›› Issue (5): 718-734.doi: 10.13305/j.cnki.jts.2024.05.002

• Research Paper • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Physiological Response of Tea Plants Inoculated with Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi under Drought Stress

LU Wei1, WU Xiaolong1, HU Xianchun1, HAO Yong2,*, LIU Chunyan1,*   

  1. 1. College of Horticulture and Gardening, Yangtze University, Jingzhou 434025, China;
    2. College of Urban Construction, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, 434023, China
  • Received:2024-06-07 Revised:2024-07-29 Online:2024-10-15 Published:2024-11-08

Abstract: To explore the mechanism of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi on the growth and physiological characteristics of tea plants under drought stress, tea cultivar ‘Fuding Dabaicha' was used as experimental material to inoculate with or without (Claroideoglomus etunicatum) under well-watered and drought stress. Plant growth performance, photosynthesis, osmotic regulation and stomatal aperture were determined to investigate the effect of AMF on tea seedlings under different duration of DS (4 weeks, 6 weeks and 8 weeks). The results show that under well-watered and drought stress conditions, AMF inoculation significantly promoted plant growth performance, increased the shoot and root biomass, improved the root system architecture, in particularly increased total root length, secondary and tertiary lateral root numbers, and leaf osmotic potential by 20.00%-38.77%, 48.90%-163.33%, 60.00%-442.86%, 29.77%-41.24%, decreased the stomatal density and relative conductance under drought stress by 16.00%-42.37% and 2.21%-6.67% respectively. The effects were more significant under drought stress. Whereas, drought stress significantly inhibited the root AMF colonization and plant growth, as evidenced by impaired establishment of root system architecture, reduced leaf chlorophyll content, maximum light quantum effect (QY_max), leaf relative water content, stomatal aperture and osmotic potential, etc. AMF inoculation could significantly alleviate this inhibitory effect, improve the physiological response of tea plants under drought stress and thus promote tea plant growth. The results indicate that AMF could promote the absorption of water and nutrients, alleviate the damage of drought stress and improve the drought resistance of tea seedlings by improving root morphology, promoting the water retention and photosynthetic capacity, adjusting the stomatal and osmotic balance, and the promotion effect of AMF became more significant with the extension of drought time.

Key words: tea plant growth, physiological character, AMF, drought stress

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