LAUSR

Abstract The growth and yield of crops are severely threatened by drought stress. As the symbiotic partners of plants, the function of the symbiotic interaction between arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AM fungi) and endophytic fungi on host drought resistance is still unclear. Through high-throughput sequencing of peanuts cultivated in a natural soil environment with different soil water conditions, our study showed that the inoculation of an endophytic fungus not only reassembled the root-dwelling AM fungal community by driving the colonization of Gigaspora, but also enhanced peanut drought resistance under drought stress. Co-inoculation experiments revealed that the synergetic interaction between the endophytic fungus and the AM fungi promoted the ecological service of the extraradical hyphae of Gigaspora margarita. In addition, both endophytic fungal exudates and root exudates failed to differentially affect the pre-symbiotic growth of different AM fungi. Overall, our study enabled us to better understand the ecological importance of the tripartite symbiosis between endophytic fungi, AM fungi and the host.