Acclimatization of Cicer arietinum L. plants to salinity: examining the relief role of autochthonous mycorrhiza and exogenous proline

Abstract Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) plant, among the most widely grown worldwide crops, faces a formidable foe: salinity which impedes its growth. In this regard, an experiment was stated to evaluate the effect of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) inoculation and exogenous proline (100 ppm) application on the growth and metabolic constituents of chickpea plants under salt stress (200 mM) conditions. Six treatments were tested: control, NaCl, proline, NaCl + proline, AMF, and NaCl + AMF. All growth indicators, leaf water content (8.0%), chlorophyll content (53.0%) and membrane stability index (36.8%) showed a decrease in plants subjected to salinity stress while an increase in membrane lipid peroxidation (72.9%) was noted as versus the control plants; however, proline-applied and AMF-colonized plants showed the reverse responses. A discernible rise in total phenols (49.1 and 35.6%), flavonoids (66.5 and 38.5%) and phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (7.1 and 4.7%) was observed with AMF and proline application under salt stress. The most obvious result is the role of AMF in strengthening the contents of soil easily (70.0%) and total glomalin (78.3%) and root acid (26.5%) and alkaline (41.8%) phosphatases. These results demonstrate that AMF and proline improve physiological and biochemical performance of chickpea under salt stress, with AMF showing the strongest benefits. Importantly, the application of AMF or proline offers a practical and eco-friendly strategy to mitigate salinity stress in chickpea cultivation, supporting sustainable crop production in salt-affected soils.