Naz, Falak Hamayun, Muhammad Rauf, Mamoona Arif, Muhammad Khan, Sumera Afzal Ud-Din, Jalal Gul, Humaira Hussain, Anwar Iqbal, Amjad Kim, Ho-Youn Lee, In-Jung 2024-01-19T10:34:09Z 2024-01-19T10:34:09Z 2022-12-09 2022-11 1664-462X https://pubs.kist.re.kr/handle/201004/114290 Rapid industrialization and global warming have threatened the plants with multiple abiotic stresses, such as heavy metals and drought stress. For crop cultivation, the conventional approach of cleaning the soils by excavation is very costly and not feasible for large scale. Establishing toxin-free and drought-resistant crops is a major challenge in the environment under natural and anthropogenic pressure. In the past decades, copper contamination of agricultural land has become an emerging concern. For dry land reclamation, several new strategies, including bioremediation (phytoremediation and microbial remediation), have been used. Owing to the potential of Cu hyperaccumulators, the current project aims to enhance the drought tolerance and the phytoremediation potential of Solanum lycopersicum L. with the inoculation of copper and 12% polyethylene glycol (PEG)-induced drought stress-tolerant endophytic fungus Porostereum spadiceum AGH786 under the combined stress of copper heavy metal and PEG-induced drought stress. When S. lycopersicum L. was watered with individual stress of copper (Cu) concentration (400 ppm) in the form of copper sulfate (CuSO4.5H(2)O), 12% PEG-induced drought stress and the combined stress of both negatively affected the growth attributes, hormonal, metabolic, and antioxidant potential, compared with control. However, the multistress-resistant AGH786 endophytic fungus ameliorated the multistress tolerance response in S. lycopersicum L. by positively affecting the growth attributes, hormonal, metabolic, and antioxidant potential, and by restricting the root-to-shoot translocation of Cu and inducing its sequestration in the root tissues of affected plants. AGH786-associated plants exhibited a reduction in the severity of copper (Cu) and drought stress, with higher levels of SlCOPT (Cu transporters) and SlMT (metallothionine) gene expressions in root and shoot tissues, indicating that AGH786 contributed to resistance to copper metal toxicity and drought stress in the host S. lycopersicum L. English Frontiers Media S.A. Molecular mechanism of Cu metal and drought stress resistance triggered by Porostereum spadiceum AGH786 in Solanum lycopersicum L. Article 10.3389/fpls.2022.1029836 1 Frontiers in Plant Science, v.13 Frontiers in Plant Science 13 Y scie scopus 000889241400001 2-s2.0-85142616420 Plant Sciences Plant Sciences Article RAPID-DETERMINATION ENDOPHYTIC FUNGI SALT-STRESS COPPER GROWTH TOLERANCE EXPRESSION TOXICITY DETOXIFICATION ATTRIBUTES Cu toxicity heavy metal stress metallothionine drought stress bioremediation endophytic fungi