Aspergillus terreus DZ-Q1-1 enhances maize salt tolerance and growth via transcriptional reprogramming of hormone signaling, sphingolipid metabolism, and ion homeostasis.
Jiao Y, Hu Y, Chen Q, Li S, Wang Y
Crop Improvement
PubMedSalty, degraded farmland already threatens the food on your plate, and this fungus offers a natural, spray-on solution that could help farmers grow corn on soils once considered too damaged to farm.
Scientists found a fungus that naturally lives inside the roots of a salt-loving coastal plant. When they introduced this fungus to corn seedlings, the corn grew bigger and stronger — even when the soil was loaded with salt that would normally stunt or kill the plants. The fungus works by switching on the corn's own defense systems, helping it balance its internal chemistry, repair cell damage, and keep growing despite the stress.
Key Findings
Corn seedlings inoculated with the fungus grew 25% heavier, 45% taller, and had 16% longer roots under high-salt stress (250 mM NaCl) compared to untreated salt-stressed plants.
The fungus boosted the potassium-to-sodium ratio in corn shoots and roots by 45% and 68% respectively, directly reducing the toxic buildup of sodium inside plant tissues.
Even without salt stress, the fungus improved corn seedling fresh weight by 13%, plant height by 9%, and root length by 19% by activating plant growth hormone pathways.
chevron_right Technical Summary
A soil fungus naturally found in salt-tolerant coastal plants can be applied to corn seedlings to help them survive salty soils, boosting growth by up to 45% under high-salt conditions by reprogramming the plant's internal chemistry.
Abstract Preview
Salt stress is widely recognized as a major abiotic factor constraining global crop growth and productivity, while soil salinization continues to pose substantial challenges to agricultural sustain...
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Maize, also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout grass that produces cereal grain. The leafy stalk of the plant gives rise to male inflorescences or tassels which produce pollen, and female inflorescences called ears. The ears yield grain, known as kernels or seeds. In modern ...