Changes in morphological and biochemical properties of Celtis caucasica L. mycorrhizal fungi-inoculated under drought stress condition

Zagros forest in the west of Iran has been destroying recently due to climate changes, dust, pests, local people using, grazing livestock and used more than ecosystem capacity. Accordingly, these regions need to be recovering by reforestation resistance seedlings. For this purpose, the influence of different arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) included; Rhizophagus intraradices and Funneliformis mosseae as exotic fungi and two native, Funneliformis geosporum and Claroideoglomus etunicatum, as well as non-mycorrhizal (control), investigate to produced resistance seedling of Celtis caucasica L. under three water regimes (optimal irrigation, 75% of field capacity and water deficit, 50% and 25% of field capacity) as factorial in a completely randomized design with ten replications. Mycorrhizal seedlings especial natives one reveals that AMF significantly raised morphological and physiological traits such as the fresh and dry weight of above and underground biomass, the length of the root, seedling height, colonization percentage, H2O2 and MDA content, CAT, SOD, POD activity, the content of chlorophyll a, b, total chlorophyll, and carotenoid. The concentration of H2O2 and MDA in inoculated plants was less than non-mycorrhizal plants under all irrigation regimes. The activity of antioxidant enzymes simultaneously increased with increasing drought stress, application of AMF caused a further increase in their activity. The content of chlorophyll a, b, total chl, and carotenoid decreased with increasing water deficit. In AMF treatments, the content of these pigments was more in respect to control (non-mycorrhizal plants). Generally, we suggest that the effect of native mycorrhizal fungi was more and better than the exotic fungi and control. Thus, identifying the symbiosis between native mycorrhizal fungi and trees could be considered as an eminent step towards the restoration of degraded areas of plantations and forests.