Maize drought tolerance: Potential improvements through arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis?

Due to long-term trends in global climate change and the expansion of maize production in drought-prone regions, the development of drought-tolerant maize varieties is of high importance, particularly for maize producers in developing nations where plant breeding improvements are more easily adopted than high-input agronomic practices. Prior advances in breeding for drought-tolerant maize have often involved selection for beneficial morpho-physiological traits such as a reduced anthesis-silking interval (ASI) and an improved harvest index (HI). Although maize is an effective host of arbuscular mycorrhizae (AM) in infertile and drought conditions, few maize breeding and physiological research programs have examined the potential of AM symbiosis to improve maize drought tolerance. The objective of this review is to highlight the morpho-physiological responses and potential mechanisms through which AM colonization might improve maize drought tolerance and, in doing so, to examine the potential of this symbiotic relationship to serve as an effective tool for improving cultivar drought tolerance. In this review, we briefly describe the general effects of AM symbiosis on plant water relations, and then extensively examine the effects of AM colonization on pre-flowering, flowering, and post-flowering maize morpho-physiology under drought-stress conditions in greenhouse and field settings. We then suggest potential areas for future research related to (a) the adoption of cropping practices promoting AM colonization and survival; (b) the further understanding of AM effects on maize morpho-physiology; and (c) the creation of AM-colonized, drought-tolerant maize cultivars through conventional breeding as well as molecular and genomic techniques. We conclude by discussing practical considerations associated with the use of AM for maize drought-stress research and large-scale, commercial maize production.