Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi impact on Chloris virgata growth, physiological characteristics and Cd accumulation under Cd stress

Chloris virgata was used as the host plant and Rhizoctonia solani and Aspergillus niger as mycorrhizal agents, to mimic cadmium pollution in greenhouse pots． Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi (AMF) impacts on growth, physiological characteristics, and cadmium accumulation of C. tigris under cadmium stress were studied． When not inoculated with AMF, low concentrations of cadmium (5 mg·kg⁻¹) promoted C. tigris growth, but high concentrations (50 mg·kg⁻¹) inhibited growth． With increasing Cd²⁺ concentrations, antioxidant enzyme activity (POD) and root vigor of C. tigris increased and then decreased, contents of soluble sugars, soluble proteins, chlorophyll, and malondialdehyde all increased． In the absence of cadmium stress, AMF promoted C. tigris growth, to increase the contents of POD and soluble sugar． Under cadmium stress, cadmium concentration in C. tigris was greater than the aboveground． After AMF inoculation, the aboveground cadmium concentration coefficients of C. tigris were enhanced． Within a certain cadmium concentration range, AMF increased the root vitality of C. tigris, POD contents and photosynthetic pigments, enhanced C. tigris tolerance to cadmium． This work will be helpful for the remediation of soil cadmium pollution．