Effects of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and plant symbiosis on plant water relation and its mechanism

In this review, progresses in how AMF could balance water relations and affect root to shoot communications are summarized from studies in the last four decades, and possibly related mechanisms are also concluded. The Ohm's law model, which is the most representatively traditional progress in water uptake mechanisms, could further reveal how AMF is able to improve soil water absorption and transport. This mode reveals that mycorrhizal hyphae, which are different from plant root cells, having aseptate or coenocytic and elastic hyphal wall at the tip, and only infrequent, adventitious septa, can contribute to transport water rapidly in host plants under drought stress. Thus, AMF in plant root may be able to feel drier soil more quickly and produce non-hydraulic root-sourced signals earlier. AMF can also affect root to shoot communications, such as inducing signaling cascades for root-sourced signal generation and the improvement of drought tolerance from cellular to whole plant level.