Effects of Endophytic Fungus Piriformospora indica on Growth Indices and Nutrient Uptake by Anise Plant (Pimpinella anisum) under Water Deficit Stress Conditions

Nutritional status of medicinal plants is important due to their direct involvement in human dietary. Also, water deficit stress may adversely affect nutrient uptake and biomass production of these plants. There are evidences indicating that endophytic fungusPiriformospora indica improves nutrients uptake and mitigates water deficit stress in plants. In this study, a pot culture experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with factorial arrangement with two factors including two levels of P. indica (inoculated and non-inoculated) and soil moisture with three levels of 0.8-0.9 FC (W0), 0.6-0.7 FC (W1) and 0.4-0.5 FC (W2) with four replications. The results showed that the interaction effect of water deficit × fungus on all morphological characteristics except plant height was significant (P <0.05). In severe water deficit stress (W2), fungal inoculation leads to increase in dry weight of shoot (22.4%) and root (8.4%), chlorophyll index (4.9%), chlorophyll fluorescence (5.5%), shoot (61.3%) and root (65.6%) P concentration, shoot (22.6%) and root (24.6%) K concentration, root colonization (100%) and seed yield (47.1%) compared to the un-inocultaed controls. Although the highest values of above mentioned traits were recorded at the highest moisture level (W0) in the presence of P. indica.