Alleviation of salt stress in Cynara cardunculus L. var. scolymus fiori by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi

Research was carried out in order to evaluate the effect of mycorrhizal fungi in improving artichoke tolerance to salinity stress induced by sodium chloride. In fact, several studies have shown that arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungus symbiosis enhances salt tolerance in some crops. The experiment was carried out with seedlings of artichoke cultivar '044' (Cynara cardunculus L. var. scolymus), treated or not with AM fungi (Glomus viscosum) at sowing. The root systems of both mycorrhizal and non mycorrhizal plantlets were carefully washed to remove the substratum and exposed to distillated water (control) and saline water (13 and 26 dS m-1) obtained by adding NaCl. The wilting trend was studied defining wilting indexes on the basis of visual characteristics. When the wilting had stabilized, the plant roots were washed in distilled water and then transferred to glass jars with distilled water until the recovery of the plantlets. The results indicate that AM fungi improve tolerance to salinity stress, confirming the beneficial effect of mycorrhizal fungi in abiotic stresses also for artichokes. © ISHS.