Fungi to strengthen alfalfa growth in degraded soils

Some soils have high concentrations of certain salts and this harms the agricultural crops located there. Would it be practical to promote the symbiosis of these vegetables with beneficial fungi, as occurs naturally in many other situations?

Biologist Malena Achiary, from the National University of San Luis (UNSL) in Argentina, studied the specific case of Medicago sativa, a variety of alfalfa sensitive to salinity. This grass is used to feed cattle and horses.

Taking into account that this plant can be grown in different soils, due to its great potential for adaptability, the researcher tried growing it under the conditions of high salinity of a soil sample obtained from the Argentine town of Nogolí.

He also tested whether the symbiosis of beneficial soil fungi with the plant was helpful in that type of soil and in others.

Experiments showed that attaching such fungi to alfalfa roots effectively mitigated salt stress. «We noticed that the plant had better vigor and grew more. We made measurements at a morphological and biochemical level and we were able to make an external and internal comparison and evaluate the effect,” the scientist noted.

Malena Achiary. (Photo: UNSL Institutional Press)

The results of this symbiosis in the case of soils with a significant presence of cadmium, a toxic environmental contaminant, were discouraging. In these cases, the symbiosis between plant and fungus harms the plant even more because it tends to enhance the entry of cadmium into it. (Source: Fabiola Gisel Aranda / National University of San Luis / Argentina Investiga)