Responses of phytohormones and gas exchange to mycorrhizal colonization in trifoliate orange subjected to drought stress

Phytohormones have an essential ability to adapt to abiotic stresses, including drought stress (DS), by mediating physiological and molecular processes. Arbuscular mycorrhizas (AMs) can enhance tolerance of DS, but the information regarding phytohormone changes in AM plants exposed to DS is little known. Trifoliate orange (Poncirus trifoliata) seedlings colonized by an AM fungus Funneliformis mosseae were subjected to DS and well-watered for 6weeks. Plant growth performance, gas exchange, indole-acetic acid (IAA), gibberellins (GAs), brassinosteroids (BRs), abscisic acid (ABA), methyl jasmonate (MeJA) and zeatin riboside (ZR) were determined. The 6-week DS treatment strongly restricted root mycorrhizal colonization. Mycorrhizal inoculation significantly increased plant growth parameters under DS, as compared with non-mycorrhizal treatment. Mycorrhizal treatment also induced significantly higher leaf-relative water content, net photosynthetic rate, transpiration rate and stomatal conductance but lower intercellular CO2 concentration and leaf temperature under DS, compared with non-mycorrhizal treatment. Mycorrhizal plants under DS condition represented significantly higher leaf ABA, IAA, GAs, BRs and ZR levels than non-mycorrhizal plants. The study, hence, suggested that mycorrhizal inoculation induced the changes of gas exchange and endogenous phytohormone levels to enhance drought tolerance in trifoliate orange.