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Effects of Rhizophagus intraradices and Rhizobium trifolii on growth and N assimilation of white clover

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Abstract

The inoculation response of single arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi (AMF) or rhizobia (Rh) in relation to nitrogen (N) acquisition of plants is well established, while the combined effect of both AMF and Rh is poorly known with regard to N assimilation for changes in amino acids of white clover (Trifolium repens). A pot study was carried out to evaluate the effect of single versus dual inoculation of AMF (Rhizophagus intraradices) and rhizobium (Rhizobium trifolii) on plant growth, leaf and root N contents, root amino acid contents, and root N-related enzyme activities in white clover. One hundred days after inoculations, Rh inoculation significantly stimulated the root colonization by R. intraradices. A single inoculation of AMF or Rh improved the plant growth (biomass production, root projected area, and root volume), root N acquisition, and dual inoculation of AMF and Rh further expanded some of these positive effects on root projected area and root N contents than single inoculation. All the inoculations notably increased activities of root asparagines synthase, nitrate reductase, and glutamate synthase, whilst dual inoculation displayed a much stronger effect in asparagine synthase activity than single inoculation. Single Rh treatment increased root glutamate and proline content, single AMF inoculation induced an increase in glutamate, aspartate, arginine, and ornithine content, while dual inoculation stimulated the accumulation of aspartate and proline. These results suggested the cooperation between the AMF and Rh inoculations, which magnified the positive effect on partly N metabolites and N-assimilation relevant enzymes of white clover.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Horticulture and Gardening, Yangtze University, Jingzhou, 434025, Hubei, China

    Miao-Miao Xie, Si-Min Chen, Ying-Ning Zou & Qiang-Sheng Wu

  2. ICAR-Central Citrus Research Institute, Nagpur, Maharashtra, 440033, India

    A. K. Srivastava

  3. Natural Science Unit, Tokyo Gakugei University, Koganei, Tokyo, 184-8501, Japan

    Mohammed Mahabubur Rahman

  4. Department of Horticulture, City Operations, Park and Road Services, City of Edmonton, Edmonton, AB, T6X 1L6, Canada

    Mohammed Mahabubur Rahman

  5. Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of Hradec Kralove, 50003, Hradec Kralove, Czech Republic

    Qiang-Sheng Wu & Kamil Kuča

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  1. Miao-Miao Xie
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  2. Si-Min Chen
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  4. A. K. Srivastava
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  7. Kamil Kuča
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Contributions

QSW designed the study; SMC measured experiment indexes; YNZ contributed to reagents, materials, analysis software, and experience equipment; MMX analyzed the data and draft the manuscript; and AKS, MMR and KK devoted to language modification. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Qiang-Sheng Wu.

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Communicated by Hang-Wei Hu.

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Xie, MM., Chen, SM., Zou, YN. et al. Effects of Rhizophagus intraradices and Rhizobium trifolii on growth and N assimilation of white clover. Plant Growth Regul 93, 311–318 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10725-020-00689-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10725-020-00689-y

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