Interaction Effects of Different Soil Moisture levels, Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungi and Three Phosphate Levels on: II- Mineral ions, Protein and Amino Acids contents of Garden Cress (Lepidium sativum L.) plant

The contents of mineral ions, protein and amino acids in seeds of (Lepidium sativum L.) were determined in response to water stress (85, 55 and25% depletion of the available soil water), Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi and three phosphate levels (control (without mycorrhiza and phosphorus), zero phosphorus + mycorrhiza (P0), 25% recommended phosphorus + mycorrhiza (P1), 50% recommended phosphorus + mycorrhiza (P2) and 100% recommended phosphorus + mycorrhiza (P3)). Treatments were arranged in a randomized complete blocks design with five replicates. The results revealed significant decrease in protein and mineral ions contents of L. sativum seeds with increasing water stress level. These changes were accompanied with an increment in proline and amino acids contents of L. sativum seeds. AMF inoculation clearly increased protein and mineral ions contents compared with non-AMF plants. Moreover, the composition of amino acids was changed by AMF inoculation, where their contents were mostly decreased specially after phosphate addition. It seems that the AMF symbiosis enhanced drought tolerance mechanisms of L. sativum plants.