Evaluation of root traits of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) under treatments of rhizobium, arbuscular mycorrhiza and pseudo-endomycorrhiza on conditions of sterilized and non-sterile soil

In order to investigate the inoculation of chickpea seeds with rhizobium, arbuscular mycorrhiza and pseudo-endomycorrhiza, an experiment was conducted, in factorial by arrangement of three factors with a completely randomized design and three replications in research greenhouse, Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. First factor was consisted of two sterilized levels (put the soil at 121°C for 15min in autoclave) and non-sterile soil and second factor was consisted of three levels mycorrhiza (arbuscular mycorrhizaof Glomus mosseae, pseudo-endomycorrhiza of Piriformospora indica and non-used mycorrhiza) and third factor was consisted of two rhizobium levels (using rhizobium strain of Mesorhizobium ciceri and non-used rhizobium). The results indicated that mycorrhiza significantly increased weight, area and root colonization. But effect of mycorrhiza wasn’t significant on number of rhizobium nodules. Application of rhizobium significantly increased weight, area and number of rhizobium nodules. But effect of rhizobium wasn’t significant on root colonization. In conditions of non-sterile soil, number of rhizobium nodules and root colonization were significantly increased. In study of interactions was found that in condition of using mycorrhiza in sterile soil in traits of area and root colonization, were assigned the highest rate compared to other treatments. The combined application of mycorrhiza and rhizobium was caused significant superiority in length and area of roots. Using rhizobium in non-sterile soil conditions than non-using rhizobium and sterile soil, increased number of rhizobium nodules significantly at the rate of 90.5%. It seems that the use of mycorrhiza in chickpea cultivation can be effective to improve root characteristics