Global research trends on arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi regulating plant responses to drought stress: A bibliometric analysis

Résumé fourni par la source

Drought stress is a major constraint on plant productivity and is expected to intensify under climate change. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) form symbioses with most land plants, enhancing water and nutrient acquisition and improving tolerance to abiotic stress. However, the global research trends, knowledge structure, and collaboration patterns of AMF-mediated plant drought tolerance have not yet been systematically assessed. We conducted a bibliometric analysis of 1,334 publications on “AMF” and “drought” from the Web of Science Core Collection between 1999 and 2024. The field has grown rapidly, particularly since 2016. China produced the largest number of publications, likely supported by strong national funding and sustainable agriculture policies, whereas Spain, especially CSIC, achieved high citation impact, possibly reflecting its sustained focus on AMF-mediated mechanisms under recurrent Mediterranean drought. International collaboration remains limited, with prolific authors and institutions largely concentrated in relatively isolated clusters, likely due to geographic and socioeconomic constraints, regional research priorities, methodological differences, and insufficient funding for international collaborative programs. Keyword and cluster analyses indicate that early studies focused on AMF colonization and plant water relations, whereas recent work has increasingly emphasized molecular and metabolic pathways, mycorrhizal signaling, ecological restoration, and the integration of AMF with soil amendments and microbiome-based approaches. This synthesis shows that AMF-mediated drought tolerance is not a universal response, but a context-dependent plant-fungus-soil process shaped by host genotype, AMF taxon, soil properties, drought intensity, resident microbiomes, and experimental setting. Future research should prioritize cross-regional, multisite, and interdisciplinary studies, together with greater investment in international collaborative projects, especially in drought-prone but underrepresented regions, to improve the reliability, transferability, and practical applicability of AMF-based strategies in sustainable agriculture and ecological restoration.

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