Genotype and soil water availability shape the composition of AMF communities at chickpea early growth stages

• Published in: Applied soil ecology : a section of Agriculture, ecosystems & environment ecosystems & environment, 2020-06, Vol.150, p.103443, Article 103443
• Main Authors: Kavadia, A., Omirou, M., Fasoula, D., Trajanoski, S., Andreou, E., Ioannides, I.M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Chickpea; Drought stress; Mycorrhizal fungi
• ISSN: 0929-1393; 1873-0272
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apsoil.2019.103443

Chickpea is one of the most important legumes in the world and could be dramatically affected from water limitation. Chickpea is associated with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) that are known for their contribution to the alleviation of drought stress in plants. In the current study we evaluated the effect of water limitation in two chickpea genotypes (A345 and A365) and how water limitation affected plant performance and AMF symbiosis (composition and colonization) in a microcosm study in a complete randomized design. Water limitation had a detrimental effect only in A345 genotype performance and this was depended on plant growth stage. On the contrary, the biomass production of A365 genotype was not affected from water limitation 55 days after the initiation of the experiment. This response was associated with AMF colonization. The colonization found in the sensitive to water limitation genotype A345 was substantially suppressed in both growth stages while the colonization of the tolerant, A365 genotype was not affected under drought stress conditions. Multivariate analysis showed that the composition of AMF communities in chickpea was significantly affected from the interaction between growth stage, genotype and water availability (p