Arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM)-mediated plant physiological activities could contribute to plant salt tolerance. However, the biochemical mechanism by which AM fungi enhance salt tolerance of halophytic plants is unclear. A pot experiment was conducted to determine whether salt tolerance of the C 3 halophyte Suaeda salsa was enhanced by the AM fungus Glomus mosseae. When 60-day-old S. salsa seedlings were subjected to 400 mmol L-1 NaCl stress for 35 days, plant height, number of leaves and branches, shoot and root biomass, and root length of G. mosseae-colonized seedlings were significantly greater than those of the nonmycorrizal seedlings. Leaf superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity at all sampling times (weekly for 35 days after salt stress was initiated) and leaf catalase (CAT) activity at 2 and 3 weeks after salt stress was initiated were also significantly enhanced in G. mosseae-colonized S. salsa seedlings, while the content of leaf malondialdehyde (MDA), a product of membrane lipid peroxidation, was significantly reduced, indicating an alleviation of oxidative damage. The corresponding leaf isoenzymes of SOD (Fe-SOD, Cu/Zn-SOD1, and Cu/Zn-SOD2) and CAT (CAT1 and CAT2) were also significantly increased in the mycorrhizal seedlings after 14 days of 400 mmol L-1 NaCl stress. Our results suggested that G. mosseae increased salt tolerance by increasing SOD and CAT activities and forming SOD and CAT isoforms in S. salsa seedlings.
