A comparative Study on the Effect of Seed Pre-sowing Treatments with Microwave Radiation and Salicylic Acid in Alleviating the Drought-Induced Damage in Wheat

Abstract

This study was conducted to compare the potential of physical and chemical seed priming with weak microwave radiation (MR) and salicylic acid (SA), respectively, on enhancing photosynthetic performance, leaf water relations and osmotic potential, yield, yield components, and water-use efficiency (WUE), and alleviating oxidative stress damage in two wheat genotypes under well-watered and drought-stressed (DS) conditions. Two wheat genotypes (Giza 168 as drought sensitive and Gharbiya as drought tolerant) were used for this study. Results revealed that drought stress led to significant changes in the vital physiological, growth, and yield traits, especially in drought-sensitive genotype. Both seed pre-sowing treatments significantly improved yield, yield components, and WUE of wheat genotypes with superior impact under DS conditions. The alleviation of drought-induced damage on yield, yield components by the application of seed pretreatments could be ascribed to their effect on improving relative water content with reducing membrane permeability. However, the effect of SA was more related to improved management of photooxidative damage and light-harvesting pigments, while the effect of MR was more ascribed to improved osmotic adjustment and decreasing H2O2 accumulation. Overall, MR found to be a fast and economical technique than SA for alleviating the adverse effects of drought on wheat genotypes.