Effects Of Inoculation With Three Species Of Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi On The Growth And Development Of Morus Alba L.’Teyou 2’

Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi are a group of obligate symbiotic soil fungi that can colonize most terrestrial plants with the effect of promoting plant uptake of water and nutrients.Mulberry(Morus alba L.)is a typical arbuscular mycorrhizal plant and an important economic and ecological tree species featuring wide adaptability and high survival after transplanting.Mulberry forms good symbionts with AM fungi.It has been reported that inoculation of AM fungi can promote the growth of mulberry trees and improve their physiological properties.Additionally,although inoculation of AM fungi under sterilized conditions can improve leaf yield and quality of mulberry,under non sterilized soil conditions,there are few studies on the effect of AM fungi on mulberry growth.However,there’s only limited research on the effect of AM fungi on mulberry growth in unsterilized soil.Therefore,the effect of inoculating three AM fungi Clariodeoglous etunicatum,Funneliformis mosseae and Rhiaophagus intraradices on the growth of mulberry cultivar ‘Teyou 2’ in unsterilized soil is investigated here with the cutting-transplanted mulberry saplings of consistent growth stage by measuring the following indicators: fresh weight of leaves,dry weight of leaves,fresh weight of stem,dry weight of stem,aboveground biomass,underground biomass,and mycorrhizal infection rate;morphological indicators of the roots: total length,average diameter,total volume and total surface area of the roots,number of root branches,number of crossings,and number of root tips;physiological and biochemical indicators: carotenoids,net photosynthetic rate,and flavonoid content.The main findings of the research are as follows:1.Inoculating the three AM fungi promote the increase in aboveground and underground biomass of mulberry,significantly promotes the root growth of ‘Teyou2’,significantly increases the mycorrhizal infection rate.The groups treated with CE,FM and RI showed significantly better results than the control group treated with CK(P<0.05).2.Among the physiological and biochemical indicators,three AM fungi significantly improve the leaf carotenoid content and net photosynthetic rate of‘Teyou 2’,with significant differences between the inoculated groups(CE,FM and RI)and the control group(CK)(P<0.05).AM fungi increase the flavonoid content of mulberry leaves.It is therefore inferred that AM fungi can enhance the photosynthetic capacity of ‘Teyou 2’ and improve the nutritional value of mulberry leaves.3.The three different AM fungi contribute to mulberry growth to different degrees.According to the experimental results,inoculating RI in unsterilized soil has the best growth-promoting effect on ‘Teyou 2’;Rhiaophagus intraradices(RI)establishes a good symbiotic relationship with the mulberry tree.