Similarly, in case of cucumber plant’s endogenous GAs, endophytic fungal application NU7026 nmr have rescued GAs biosynthesis as the level of bioactive GAs were much

pronounced compared to sole NaCl treated plants. Phytohormones, like GAs have been widely known for their role in plant growth and various developmental processes during plant’s life cycle [1, 3, 57]. Normal response of a plant to stress is to reduce growth by inter alia increasing ABA content and reducing GAs [56, 57]. GA-deficient plants are more susceptible to stress than those with higher levels of this hormone [56]. The higher amount of GA12 in endophyte-treated plant under salinity stress elucidates the activation of GAs biosynthesis pathway, while higher production of GA3 and GA4 confirm plant growth maintenance during stress condition. Thus, by maintaining GAs and, therefore, growth under PF-4708671 nmr stressful conditions, the endophyte is having a detrimental effect on the plant long-term survival. There Caspase inhibitor are many previous reports

showing the ameliorative effects of exogenous application of GAs (GA3/GA4) and IAA on cucumber growth under abiotic stress [58–60], while very little or no information’s are available on the regulation of plant endogenous hormones in association with phytohormones producing endophytic fungi under abiotic stress conditions. Some physiological evidence suggests that plants infected with endophytic fungi often have a distinct advantage against biotic and abiotic stress over their endophyte-free counterparts [61]. Beneficial features have been offered in infected plants; including drought acclimisation [62, 63] enhanced tolerance to stressful factors such high salinity [12]. Foliar application of GAs has been known for its role in plant stem elongation and mitigation of abiotic stress [54–60] while the same was observed in current study that endophytes producing GAs triggered the adverse effect of salinity stress. Conclusion P. formosus LHL10 produced many physiologically active and inactive GAs and IAA, which helped the Waito-C and Dongjin-byeo rice plants to

grow well and significantly mitigated the negative impacts of salinity stress on cucumber plants. The P. formosus LHL10 also minimized the lethal effects of salt stress on cucumber leaf tissues as evidenced from EL, RWC, photosynthesis rate, Verteporfin price nitrogen assimilation, antioxidant activity and lipid peroxidation. The cucumber plants inoculated with P. formosus LHL10 have ameliorated their growth by possessing lower levels of stress responsive endogenous ABA and elevated GAs contents. Current study reveals that such endophytic fungal interactions can improve the quality and productivity of economically important crop species. However, the favourable role of this fungus still needs to be investigated under field conditions. Acknowledgements The present research work was funded by the Eco-Innovation Project, Korean Government’s R & D program on Environmental Technology and Development.