Like many other plants, cucumber is more susceptible to salt stress [39, 40]. Current study showed that P. formosus inoculation significantly improved plant growth and alleviated salinity induced stress. The presence of IAA and GAs in the CF of the fungus further rectifies our results, as both of them promote plant growth and development [41]. The presence of P. formosus in the cortical cells and their successful re-isolation by us

further strengthens the active role of P. formosus in the host cucumber plants. The mutualistic relations of P. formosus with cucumber plant may have helped the host plant to mitigate the adverse effects of salinity stress. Similarly, recently Redman et al. [42] reported that selleck compound IAA producing endophytic fungi can enhance rice plant growth under salinity, drought and temperature stress. Previously, Khan et al. [15, 16] confirmed that GAs producing endophytic fungal strains (P. funiculosum and Aspergillus fumigatus) can ameliorate soybean plant growth AZ 628 solubility dmso under moderate and high salinity stress. Hamayun et al. [22, 23] also reported that GAs secreting fungal endophytes promote soybean growth components. Many other studies also reported similar findings narrating that fungal interaction can enhance plants growth under stress conditions [9, 12, 43, 44]. Plant growth and development depend upon leaf water contents, as salt stress trigger water deficit inside the plant tissues [4], and measurement of RWC

helps to indicate stress responses of plant and relative cellular volumes [27]. Our current findings confirm earlier studies [43, 44], suggesting that the fungal inoculated plants not only avoid stress but also help the plant to fetch higher water contents from sources usually inaccessible to

control plants. Abiotic stresses cause higher electrolyte discharge (like K+ ions) through displacement of membrane-associated Ca from plasma lemma. Resultantly, cellular membrane stability is damaged and aggregating higher efflux of electrolytes inside the plant Dolichyl-phosphate-mannose-protein mannosyltransferase tissues [27]. Our findings showed that plants associated with P. formosus had lower electrolytic leakage than control plants under salt stress. This indicated a lower permeability of plasma membrane attributed to the integrity and stability of cellular tissues due to endophyte-plant interaction as compared to control treatments [45]. On the other hand, antioxidant scavengers can enhance membrane thermostability against ROS attack, while MDA content can be used to assess injuries to plants [45]. It has been shown that peroxides of polyunsaturated fatty acids generate MDA on decomposition, and in many cases MDA is the most abundant individual aldehydic lipid breakdown product [30]. The higher MDA level is perceived with higher ROS production and cellular membrane damage. In our study, low levels of lipid peroxidation in P. formosus treated plants showed reduced cellular SB273005 purchase damage to cucumber plants growing under salinity stress as compared to control.