[Effect of AM fungi on water and nutrition status of corn plants under salt stress].

Under NaCl stress, the dry matter production of corn plants inoculated with or without arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungus (Glomus mosseae) was decreased, but the decrement for non-mycorrhizal plants was 10% higher than that for mycorrhizal ones. Under salt stress condition, the dry weights of root system and aboveground part of mycorrhizal corn and its leaf water potential were higher than those of non-mycorrhizal corn, while the proline content of mycorrhizal corn was less than that of non-mycorrhizal corn. The contribution of hypha to P uptake of plants decreased from 45.3% to 42.6%, while the effect of AM fungi on plant growth increased from 30.9% to 63.5% under salt stress condition. The above-mentioned results indicated that the mechanism that AM fungi enhance the salt-resistance of corn is related with the improvements of water and P nutrition conditions. Meanwhile, it was found whether under salt stress or not, the ratio of P accumulation of root system to aboveground part of mycorrhizal corn was higher than that of non-mycorrhizal corn, indicating that the infection of AM fungi changed the P distribution pattern in plant bodies, which is beneficial to increase the salt-resistance of plants.