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The effect of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi on the phenolic compounds profile, antioxidant activity and grain yields in wheat cultivars growing under hydric stress.

BACKGROUND
Hydric stress affects the production of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) worldwide, making some tools necessary to cope with the decrease in rainfall. A sustainable alternative is the use of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) as biofertilisers. Here, we analysed the effects of AMF strains adapted or non-adapted to hyper-arid conditions on the phenolic profiles and antioxidant activities of wheat grains from two cultivars with contrasting tolerance to osmotic stress (Ilustre, moderately tolerant, and Maxi, tolerant) grown with and without hydric stress.


RESULTS
Eight phenolic compounds were detected, being apigenin-C-pentoside-C-hexoside I the most abundant and showing an increase of 80.5% when inoculated with the fungus Funneliformis mosseae (FM) obtained from Atacama Desert under normal irrigation with respect to non-mycorrhizal (NM) plants. NM treatments were associated with the higher grain yields. FM showed a noticeable effect on most phenolic compounds, with an increase up to 30.2% in apigenin-C-pentoside-C-hexoside III concentrations under hydric stress with respect to the normal irrigation, being also responsible of high antioxidant activities as the ABTS and DPPH activities.


CONCLUSION
We conclude that inoculation with FM adapted to hydric stress produced improvements in phenolics composition and antioxidant activities in grains of wheat plants growing under hydric stress conditions, improving their food quality and supporting the development of further studies to determine whether the use of adapted AMF could be a realistic tool to improve grain quality in a scenario of increasing hydric stress conditions. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.