Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi associated with maize plants during hydric deficit.

The objective of this study was to verify the physiological behavior and development of maize plants under hydric deficit inoculated with the AMF Rhizophagus clarus and Claroideoglomus etunicatum and the commercial inoculant ROOTELLA BR in nonsterilized soil as a strategy to mitigate the effects of drought in the crop. Corn seeds were grown and inoculated with R. clarus, C. etunicatum and the commercial inoculant ROOTELLA BR separately at sowing. The plants were grown in a greenhouse and submitted to water deficit in stage V3, keeping the pots at 20% field capacity for 10 days. The first analyses were performed, followed by reirrigation for 2 days, and the analyses were performed again. The experiment was a double factorial, with 2 water treatments (irrigated and water deficit) × 4 inoculation treatments (control, ROOTELLA BR, R. clarus, C. etunicatum) × 5 replicates per treatment, totaling 40 vessels. The results indicate that the plants were able to recover favorably according to the physiological data presented. It is noted that in inoculated plants, there was no damage to the photosynthetic apparatus. These data demonstrate that AMF contribute greatly to better plant recovery after a dry period and a new irrigation period. Inoculation with AMF favors postwater stress recovery in plants.