Abstract

Strawberry plants experiencing drought stress may experience reduced fruit production, quicker ripening, and a notable decline in fruit size, biomass, and overall yield. Plant growth-promoting microorganisms, such as arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF), bacteria, and yeast, are employed to enhance plant resilience against drought stress. Nonetheless, there is a lack of research on the lipidomic response of strawberry plants treated with microbial consortia (bacteria, AMF, and yeast) under water stress conditions. Therefore, this study aimed to identify through non-targeted lipidomics the lipid profiles that mediate the effects on increased drought tolerance in strawberry plants associated with two selected microbial consortia (Claroideoglomus claroideum + Naganishia albida + Burkholderia caledonica (CS1) and Funneliformis mosseae + Candida guillermondii + Bacillus tequilensis (CS2)). We evaluated two irrigation conditions, (i) well-watered plants (WW) (85% water holding capacity (WHC)) and (ii) stressed plants (WS) (30% WHC). Superoxide dismutase (SOD), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), and catalase (CAT) activities, net photosynthesis (A), stomatal conductance (gs), transpiration (E), and photosystem II efficiency (& Fcy;PSII), and lipid profiles of WW and WS plants were measured. We found that CS1 increased CAT and APX activity and decreased SOD activity in both irrigation conditions, improving tolerance to water deficit and helping plants to have less oxidative damage by increasing their photosynthetic performance (A, gs, E, and & Fcy;PSII), compared to control plants and CS2. In addition, lipidomic profiling revealed that changes in lipid regulation were dependent on the inoculated consortium. CS1 improved tolerance under stress conditions, and this improvement was mediated by an accumulation of galactolipids (MGDG 34:9|MGDG 16:4_18:5,MGDG 34:1|MGDG 16:0_18:1,and SQDG 34:1|SQDG 16:0_18:1), and a decrease of a hemi-bis(monoacyl)glycerophosphate (HBMP 54:5), which were the most positively and negatively regulated, respectively. While CS2 reduced the relative abundance of DGDG 36:1|DGDG 18:0_18:1 and SQDG 34:1|SQDG 16:0_18:1 galactolipids under WS conditions, preventing it from tolerating stress. This study provides useful information for lipidomic profiling of strawberry plants inoculated with different types of microorganisms growing under drought conditions.