Abstract
Caffeic acid (CA) is known as an antioxidant to scavenge reactive oxygen species (ROS), but the underlying mechanism of mediation of plant salt tolerance against various abiotic stresses by caffeic acid is only partially understood. A field experiment (120 days duration) was conducted to investigate the protective role of caffeic acid under a high saline medium (EC 8.7 dS m-1 and textural class: sandy loam) in two wheat genotypes (FSD -08 and Zincol-16). Two levels of caffeic acid (50 μM and 100 μM) were applied exogenously in combination with the salinity stress and results revealed that salt alleviation is more prominent when caffeic acid was applied at the rate of 100 μM. Under saline conditions, wheat genotypes show poor fresh and dry matter accumulation, chlorophyll contents, relative water contents (RWC), membrane stability index (MSI) and activities of antioxidant enzymes and increased uptake of Na+ ions. However, wheat genotype FSD-08 eminently responded to caffeic acid application as compared to wheat genotype Zincol-16 as demonstrated by higher growth indicators, RWC, MSI, activities of antioxidant enzymes, accumulation of mineral ions in grain along with yield attributes. In addition, caffeic acid also mitigated salt-induced oxidative stress malondialdehyde (MDA) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) contents as well as significantly reduced Na+ uptake. It can be concluded that caffeic acid-induced salinity tolerance in wheat is attributed to improved plant water relations, K+ uptake, yield contents and activities of antioxidant stress enzymes.
Highlights
Soil salinity is a major abiotic constraint that disturbs the major cellular functions, affecting plant productivity and survival all over the world
It was noticed that at control treatment, both wheat genotypes show poor growth application of caffeic acid significantly mitigate the hazardous effects of salinity and improve wheat plant growths
As compared to the control treatment, application of caffeic acid @ 50 μM increase root fresh weight, shoot fresh weight, root dry weight, shoot dry weight, root length and shoot length by 5%, 15%, 21%, 22%, 16% and 17% in wheat genotype FSD-08 while by 4, 11, 20, 18, 4 and 14% increase were observed in wheat genotype Zincol-16
Summary
Soil salinity is a major abiotic constraint that disturbs the major cellular functions, affecting plant productivity and survival all over the world. Elevated NaCl level in the soil leads to nutrient imbalance, growth inhibition, osmotic stress, ionic toxicity and photosynthetic impairment. Salinity leads to poor seed germination [4] deteriorated energy and lipid metabolism [5] accumulation of toxic ions, interrupted photosynthesis [6] and generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) that affect biological membrane integrity and metabolic damage and reduced crop yield [7]. Soil salinity leads to more accumulation of Na+ and Cl- ions which retards K+ and Ca+ uptake causing stunted plant growth [8]. Salt-induced ROS destroy membrane permeability and protein production leading to cell death
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