Abstract
Drought stress remains the major constraint in affecting crop productivity in several arid and semi-arid areas highlighting climate change perspectives. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) belong to a versatile class of plant−fungal symbiotic associations establishing drought stress alleviation. Nevertheless, the mechanistic mode of sustainable agriculture necessitates rigorous assessment for authentic and reproducible plant growth parameters. Understanding the plant growth promotion, root morphological changes, and nutrient uptake response in AMF-inoculated plants to drought is very important for sustainable agriculture. Therefore, conducted a meta-analysis of published research articles for determining the efficacy of AMF in alleviating drought stress. Overall analysis showed that AM inoculated plants had 49% higher plant growth promotion than the non-mycorrhizal plants under drought stress. Biomass analysis depicted the root dry weight increase by 49%, shoot dry weight increase by 54%, and total dry weight increase by 58% indicating plant biomass traits augmentation. Root morphological traits analysis corresponded to increased root length (37%), root surface (31%), and root volume (65%). Notably, nutrient uptake assessment showed variable increases in uptake patterns such as P uptake by 86%, N uptake by 35%, and K uptake by 46%. Furthermore, the prominent efficacy of AMF was significantly larger under drought for P uptake (p < 0.001) and root volume (p < 0.001) indicating the linear relationship between root length and P uptake. Thus, the present meta-analysis confirms that drought stress alleviation emancipated by AMF is mediated by root traits modification and phosphorous acquisition efficacy. Hence, meta-analyses along with experimental validations with field trial evaluations will certainly provide the AMF research for escalated applications for better plant productivity, stress alleviation, and sustainable agriculture.