Using Plant-Fungi Symbiosis to Improve Salt Tolerance and Fitness of Rice Crops

Overview

As Earth’s climate continues to rapidly change, many staple crop plants, especially rice, are becoming extremely vulnerable to rising sea levels and pressure on freshwater reserves. With arable coastal land quickly becoming salty and unconducive to plant growth, it is important to discover new ways to grow important crops in harsher environments. This project sought to find how different concentrations of salt in irrigation water affected rice plants grown alone or in symbiotic relationships with the endophytic Trichoderma harzianum fungi species to determine if a viable salt tolerance mechanism was present. The hypothesis was that the symbiotic plants irrigated with the highest saltwater concentration would have a greater fitness level than rice grown alone. Rice plants with and without symbiotic relationships with the fungi species were grown for six weeks and irrigated with a range of solutions from fresh water to 300 mM salt water. The height of each plant, along with its color and wiltage levels, were measured on a 1-5 scale each week as indication of its health. The experimental results indicated that rice plants grown in conjugation with the fungi and irrigated with a 300 mM saltwater solution were the healthiest in terms of their growth rate, color and wiltage level (p-value of 0.002), confirming the hypothesis. This study demonstrated an efficient way to take advantage of the increased salt levels in coastal soils by utilizing fungal symbiosis in rice plants to generate healthier and more productive crops. The results can be applied to improve crop growth in the salt-degraded areas which comprise 20 percent of the world’s irrigated land.

Competition history

• AJAS 2020 Category not listed

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