The Impact of Indigenous and Selected Mycorrhizal Species on Citrus Rootstock Salinity Stress Resistance

Plants encounter numerous abiotic and biotic stresses throughout their lives, such as drought, low temperature, disease, and salt stress. Of these stresses, salinity is one of the most common abiotic stresses that pose a threat to agricultural production worldwide (Ortas et al., 2021). Salt stress poses a major problem for plant production on the ground surface. Salinity causes physiological and biochemical imbalances that affect plants’ growth and productivity. Citrus plants are very sensitive to salinity. After summarizing the current knowledge on salt effects on plant growth and the role of AMF in increasing salt tolerance of citrus rootstocks, the main objective of the research was to determine the effect of natural and selected mycorrhizal inoculation on growth and nutrient uptake of citrus rootstocks. This experiment was carried out in the greenhouse of the Faculty of Agriculture, Soil Science and Plant Nutrition Department at Çukurova University. This experiment consisted of two types of citrus rootstocks (Citrus reshni/Cleopatra species and C35 species), three types of mycorrhizal treatments (control, natural/Indigenous and Rhizophagus clarus) and half of the soil was subjected to sterilization. Four parameters SPAD, Photosystem II (PS II), length and diameter were studied. JMP computer program was used to analyze the data for which Tukey's test (p<0.05) and Student t test were employed to compare means. The findings showed that C35 species were more resistant to salt stress than Cleopatra species. Plants grown in non-sterile soil perform better than the plants grown in sterile soil.