Arbuscular Mycorrhiza Alleviates Salinity Stress of Strawberry Cultivars under Salinity Condition

Salinity stress is one of the most important environmental factors limiting plant growth and development. This limitation can be overcome using several cultural practices including high tunnel plastic culture and use of arbuscular mycorrhizae fungi (AMF). It has been shown that AMF not only stimulate the plants' growth but also contribute in enhancing their tolerance to abiotic and biotic stresses such as salinity. A greenhouse experiment was conducted to evaluate the performance of three strawberry (Fragaria xananassa Duch.) cultivars ('Kent', 'Jewel' and 'Saint-Pierre') subjected to three NaCl levels (0, 30 and 60 mM), inoculated and non-inoculated with AMF (Glomus intraradices, Schenck & Smith). Increasing salinity, mycorrhizal root colonization significantly decreased, the highest point being at 58.1% and the lowest at 33.6%. Compared to the control, salinity significantly reduced the plant dry wt. (23.10%) but the addition of AMF increased it significantly (20.99%). Regardless of salinity, 'Jewel' showed more plant dry wt. than 'Saint-Pierre' when colonized by AMF. The highest AMF dependency was observed for 'Kent' with 60 mM NaCl, while 'Jewel' benefited the most from AMF with 30 mM NaCl. 'Saint-Pierre' had the least AMF dependency against salinity and seems to be more resistant to salinity. Overall, the results indicate that the AMF was capable of alleviating the damage caused by the salinity stress on the strawberry plants and promoted their growth.