Inoculation of drought-stressed wheat plant (Triticum aestivum L.) with single and combined inoculants of Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi

The current study aimed to compare between inoculation of wheat plant with a single and combinations of several species of Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), and promoting its growth under water stress conditions. In a greenhouse experiment, the effect of three AMF species on wheat plant growth was studied using single-inoculations with Glomus monosporum, G. mosseae and Gigaspora gigantean, and mixtures of various AMF species. Moreover, inoculation of wheat plant with pair of AM fungi composed mainly of; SN (G. monosporum and Gigaspora gigantean) and AA (G, monosporum and Glomus mosseae) were investigated. Current findings indicate that inoculation with AMF belonging to different families was more effective in improving plant growth than AMF from the same genus and with mono-inoculation. Results showed that plant height inoculated with SN and AA increased by 27.30% and 24.95; respectively, while inoculation with Gigaspora gigantean (GG), G. mosseae (GS) and G. monosporum (GM) increased by 16.01%, 14.6% and 6.83%, respectively. Number of spikes/plant, spike length, number of spikelet/spike, 1000-grain weight and grain yield/plant of wheat plants inoculated with AMF increased significantly, compared with the non-inoculated control plants under water stress. In addition, current results demonstrated that inoculation with SN had relatively higher impact on promoting the growth of wheat plants followed by AA and GG, suggesting that inoculation with AMF consisting of different species may have a better effect than single inoculations. Furthermore, it is observed also that SN; which are combination from different genera have better effect on wheat plant growth, compared to that of AA from the same genus but of different species.