Exogenous salicylic acid-induced drought stress tolerance in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) grown under hydroponic culture

• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0260556
• Publication Date: 2021-12-20T18:32:27Z
• Authors: Ali Ahmad; Zubair Aslam; Maliha Naz; Sadam Hussain; Talha Javed; Sadia Aslam; Ali Raza; Hayssam M. Ali; Manzer H. Siddiqui; Mohamed Z. M. Salem; Christophe Hano; Rubab Shabbir; Sunny Ahmar; Tasbiha Saeed; Muhammad Asif Jamal
• Keywords: Drought Tolerance; Drought stress

Wheat is an important cereal crop, which adversely affected by water deficit stress. The effect of induced stress can be reduced the application salicylic acid (SA). With objective to combat drought in wheat, experiment was conducted greenhouse under hydroponic conditions. treatments consisted (a) no (DD0 = 0 MPa), mild (DD1 -0.40 MPa) and severe (DD2 -0.60 applying PEG-8000, (b) two contrasting wheat varieties Barani-17 (drought tolerant) Anaj-17 (drought-sensitive), (c) foliar (0, 50 mM, 75 100 mM). Evaluation plants regarding biochemical, physiological, morphological attributes were rendered after harvesting plants. Statistically, maximum shoot root fresh dry weights (18.77, 11.15 1.99, 1.81 g, respectively) recorded cultivar condition with SA (100 While, minimum (6.65, 3.14 0.73, 0.61 Anaj-2017 without application. length (68.0 cm) observed Barani-2017 (59.67 moderate SA. Further, (28.67 Minimum (38.67 Furthermore, physio-biochemical traits, including membrane stability index (MSI), chlorophyl content, photosynthetic rates, stomatal conductance, antioxidant enzymatic activities relative content (RWC) found highest at mM. However, values these traits Our results also demonstrated that drought, mM significantly increased leaf nitrogen (N), phosphrus (P) potassium (K) contents higher than Anaj-17. obtained indicated cultivation conditions noticeably declines morphological, biochemical exogenous had a positive impact on crop for enhancing its productivity.