Arbuscular mycorrhizal symbiosis enhances salt tolerance in Eucalyptus grandis by coordinating antioxidant defense, hormone accumulation and ion homeostasis.

Eucalyptus grandis seedlings inoculated with Rhizophagus irregularis show significantly less salt-induced growth inhibition across 0–200 mM NaCl, alongside reduced membrane damage and water deficit.

• Why it matters: Salt stress markedly constrains Eucalyptus productivity, but the integrated physiological and molecular mechanisms behind AM-mediated salinity tolerance in this woody species are not fully understood.
• What they did: Seedlings were grown across a NaCl gradient (0–200 mM) with or without AM inoculation, then assessed for physiology, oxidative stress markers, antioxidant enzyme activities, hormone profiles, ion contents, and genome-wide SOS pathway gene responses.
• The result: AM-colonized plants accumulated less osmolytes and oxidative stress markers, maintained higher antioxidant enzyme activities, accumulated less sodium and more potassium, and showed qPCR responses in all 23 candidate SOS pathway genes under salt stress.

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