Effect the accumulation of bioactive constituents of a medicinal plant (Salvia miltiorrhiza Bge.) by arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi community

Background: Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) form symbiotic relationships with many terrestrial plants and have attracted considerable interest as biofertilizers to improve the quality and yield of medicinal plants. Although AMFs are widely distributed in Salvia miltiorrhiza Bunge roots, there are few studies on how multiple AMFs could affect biomass and active ingredient accumulations. The purpose of this study was to comprehensively investigate the impacts of five native AMFs and twenty-six communities on the root biomass and secondary metabolites of S. miltiorrhiza . Results: Thirty-one treatment groups formed symbiotic relationships with S. miltiorrhiza, according to the pot culture results, and the colonization rate ranged from 54.83–89.97%. With increasing AMF richness, root biomass and total tanshinone accumulations (ATTS) showed a rising trend, while total phenolic acid accumulations (ATP) showed a decreasing trend. This indicated that plant productivity was influenced by the AMFs richness, and the inoculation benefit was higher when the communities contained three or four AMFs. The affinities of AMF members were also connected to plant productivity. The inoculation effect of relatively closely related AMFs of the same family, such as Glomus formosanum , Septoglomus constrictum , and Rhizophagus manihotis , was consistently lower than that of mono-inoculation when any combinations were applied. The co-inoculation of S. miltiorrhiza with nearby or distant AMFs from two families, such as G. formosanum , R. manihotis , and Acaulospora laevis or Ambispora gerdemannii , increased ATP and ATTS by more than 50%. Conclusion: The results show that co-inoculation of three or four distantly related AMFs improves the plant’s economic yield in an ecologically friendly manner.