Abstract
Oats ( Avena sativa ) are a nutritious and versatile crop, but they are highly vulnerable to drought, especially during the heading and flowering stages, which significantly reduce yield and quality. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) can improve plant resilience to drought and other abiotic stresses. However, the genetic networks underlying oat responses to drought during the early flowering stage, influenced by AMF, remain unclear. In this study, we used transcriptome sequencing, phenotypic, and physiological analyses to investigate how AMF enhance drought tolerance in oats. Samples were collected on day 60 of oat-AMF symbiosis (corresponding to day 30 of drought stress), with the 30-day drought period covering the critical water-sensitive phase of panicle initiation to flowering in oats. We found that AMF inoculation enhanced multiple drought-related traits in oats, including growth parameters, root vitality, antioxidant enzyme activity, and levels of oxidative glutathione (GSSG), indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), and abscisic acid (ABA). Transcriptomic analysis further identified differentially expressed genes involved in drought response, membrane integrity, and transport activities, with a focus on genes associated with stress tolerance. KEGG pathway analysis revealed phenylpropanoid biosynthesis and plant hormone signal transduction were significantly affected under drought and AMF inoculation. Further analysis showed that genes such as PAL , PYL5 , CRE1 , and B-ARR were differentially expressed in AMF-inoculated oat roots under drought stress. Additionally, weighted gene co-expression network analysis identified hub genes related to plant growth and defense ( BGLU16, CGS1 ), oxidative stress ( CAT2, RBOH ), and phosphate and nutrient transport ( PHF1, PHT1-11, PIPs, YSL13 ). Overall, these results provide valuable insights into the complex genetic networks underlying AMF-enhanced drought resilience in at oats early flowering stage, offering potential candidate genes for future studies aimed at improving drought tolerance through mycorrhizal-plant interactions. • Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) inoculation enhanced oat ( Avena sativa ) drought tolerance at the early flowering stage by improving root vitality, elevating GSH content, and increasing peroxidase activity, which enhanced antioxidant defense and led to higher biomass and yield under drought stress. • Transcriptomic analysis revealed that AMF regulated key drought-responsive genes in phenylpropanoid biosynthesis ( PAL ), hormone signaling ( PYL5, CYP707A3, CRE1, B-ARR, snRK2, IAA7 ), and osmotic regulation ( P5CS2 ), indicating a broad modulation of stress signaling pathways. • AMF symbiosis influenced water and nutrient transport by upregulating aquaporin genes ( PIP1;5, PIP2;2, PIP2;3 ) and phosphate transporters ( PHF1, PHT1-11 ), enhancing water uptake, phosphate acquisition, and resource-use efficiency under drought stress. • WGCNA identified AMF-induced hub genes related to growth ( MYBAS1, BGLU16 ), oxidative defense ( CAT2, RBOH ), and carbohydrate metabolism, demonstrating that AMF reprograms gene networks to strengthen antioxidant systems and drought adaptation in oats.
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Claims 14
Claim · model-written summary
AMF inoculation improved oat growth parameters and root vitality under drought.
- Taxon
- oats
Avena sativae0 - Treatment
- AMF inoculatione0
- Interactor
- AMFe1symbiont
- Outcome
- growth parameters, root vitalitye0
- Direction
- enhancede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“AMF inoculation enhanced multiple drought-related traits in oats, including growth parameters, root vitality, antioxidant enzyme activity”
e1“Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) can improve plant resilience”
Claim · model-written summary
AMF inoculation enhanced antioxidant enzyme activity under drought.
- Taxon
- oatsAvena sativae0
- Treatment
- AMF inoculatione0
- Interactor
- AMFe1symbiont
- Outcome
- antioxidant enzyme activitye0
- Direction
- enhancede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“AMF inoculation enhanced multiple drought-related traits in oats, including growth parameters, root vitality, antioxidant enzyme activity”
e1“Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) can improve plant resilience”
Claim · model-written summary
AMF inoculation enhanced GSSG, IAA and ABA levels under drought.
- Taxon
- oatsAvena sativae0
- Treatment
- AMF inoculatione0
- Interactor
- AMFe1symbiont
- Outcome
- levels of oxidative glutathione (GSSG), indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), and abscisic acid (ABA)e0
- Direction
- enhancede0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“AMF inoculation enhanced multiple drought-related traits in oats, including growth parameters, root vitality, antioxidant enzyme activity, and levels of oxidative glutathione (GSSG), indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), and abscisic acid (ABA)”
e1“Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) can improve plant resilience”
Claim · model-written summary
AMF raised GSH content and peroxidase activity in drought stressed oats.
- Taxon
- oatAvena sativae0
- Treatment
- Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) inoculatione0
- Interactor
- Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungie0symbiont
- Outcome
- GSH content, and increasing peroxidase activitye0
- Direction
- elevatinge0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) inoculation enhanced oat ( Avena sativa ) drought tolerance at the early flowering stage by improving root vitality, elevating GSH content, and increasing peroxidase activity”
Claim · model-written summary
AMF inoculation increased oat biomass and yield under drought.
- Taxon
- oatAvena sativae1
- Treatment
- Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) inoculatione1
- Interactor
- Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungie1symbiont
- Outcome
- biomass and yielde0
- Direction
- highere0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“higher biomass and yield under drought stress”
e1“Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) inoculation enhanced oat ( Avena sativa ) drought tolerance”
Claim · model-written summary
Transcriptomics identified drought, membrane integrity and transport related differentially expressed genes.
- Taxon
- oatsAvena sativae1
- Outcome
- differentially expressed genes involved in drought response, membrane integrity, and transport activitiese0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“Transcriptomic analysis further identified differentially expressed genes involved in drought response, membrane integrity, and transport activities”
e1“how AMF enhance drought tolerance in oats”
Claim · model-written summary
Phenylpropanoid biosynthesis and hormone signal transduction were significantly affected under drought and AMF inoculation.
- Taxon
- oatsAvena sativae1
- Interactor
- AMFe2symbiont
- Outcome
- phenylpropanoid biosynthesis and plant hormone signal transductione0
Not reportedDirection
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“phenylpropanoid biosynthesis and plant hormone signal transduction were significantly affected under drought and AMF inoculation”
e1“how AMF enhance drought tolerance in oats”
e2“Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) can improve plant resilience”
Claim · model-written summary
PAL, PYL5, CRE1 and B-ARR were differentially expressed in AMF inoculated oat roots under drought.
- Taxon
- oatAvena sativae0
- Interactor
- AMFe1symbiont
- Gene
- PAL , PYL5 , CRE1 , and B-ARRe0
- Outcome
- differentially expressede0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“genes such as PAL , PYL5 , CRE1 , and B-ARR were differentially expressed in AMF-inoculated oat roots under drought stress”
e1“Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) can improve plant resilience”
Claim · model-written summary
Network analysis identified growth and defense hub genes BGLU16 and CGS1.
- Taxon
- Avena sativaAvena sativat0
- Gene
- BGLU16, CGS1e0
- Outcome
- hub genes related to plant growth and defensee0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“hub genes related to plant growth and defense ( BGLU16, CGS1 )”
t0“Avena sativa”
Claim · model-written summary
Network analysis identified oxidative stress hub genes CAT2 and RBOH.
- Taxon
- Avena sativaAvena sativat0
- Gene
- CAT2, RBOHe0
- Outcome
- oxidative stresse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“oxidative stress ( CAT2, RBOH )”
e1“hub genes related to plant growth and defense”
t0“Avena sativa”
Claim · model-written summary
Network analysis identified nutrient transport hub genes PHF1, PHT1-11, PIPs and YSL13.
- Taxon
- Avena sativaAvena sativat0
- Gene
- PHF1, PHT1-11, PIPs, YSL13e0
- Outcome
- phosphate and nutrient transporte0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“phosphate and nutrient transport ( PHF1, PHT1-11, PIPs, YSL13 )”
t0“Avena sativa”
Claim · model-written summary
AMF upregulated oat aquaporin genes PIP1;5, PIP2;2 and PIP2;3.
- Taxon
- Avena sativaAvena sativat0
- Treatment
- AMF symbiosise0
- Interactor
- AMFe1symbiont
- Gene
- PIP1;5, PIP2;2, PIP2;3e0
- Outcome
- aquaporin genese0
- Direction
- upregulatinge0
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“AMF symbiosis influenced water and nutrient transport by upregulating aquaporin genes ( PIP1;5, PIP2;2, PIP2;3 )”
t0“Avena sativa”
e1“Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) can improve plant resilience”
Claim · model-written summary
AMF upregulated oat phosphate transporter genes PHF1 and PHT1-11.
- Taxon
- Avena sativaAvena sativat0
- Treatment
- AMF symbiosise2
- Interactor
- AMFe3symbiont
- Gene
- PHF1, PHT1-11e0
- Outcome
- phosphate transporterse0
- Direction
- upregulatinge1
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“phosphate transporters ( PHF1, PHT1-11 ), enhancing water uptake, phosphate acquisition, and resource-use efficiency under drought stress”
e1“by upregulating aquaporin genes”
e2“AMF symbiosis influenced water and nutrient transport”
t0“Avena sativa”
e3“Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) can improve plant resilience”
Claim · model-written summary
AMF symbiosis enhanced oat water uptake, phosphate acquisition and resource use efficiency under drought.
- Taxon
- Avena sativaAvena sativat0
- Treatment
- AMF symbiosise1
- Interactor
- AMFe2symbiont
- Outcome
- water uptake, phosphate acquisition, and resource-use efficiencye0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
e0“enhancing water uptake, phosphate acquisition, and resource-use efficiency under drought stress”
e1“AMF symbiosis influenced water and nutrient transport”
t0“Avena sativa”
e2“Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) can improve plant resilience”
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Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.