Abstract
Zinc (Zn) availability is limited in salt-affected soils due to high soil pH and calcium concentrations causing Zn fixation. The application of synthetic Zn fertilizer is usually discouraged due to the high cost and low Zn use efficiency. However, salt-tolerant Zn-solubilizing bacteria (ZSB) are capable of solubilizing fixed fractions of Zn and improving fertilizer use efficiency. In the current study, a product was formulated by coating urea with bioaugmented zinc oxide (ZnO) to improve wheat productivity under a saline environment. The promising ZSB strain Bacillus sp. AZ6 was used for bioaugmentation on ZnO powder and termed as Bacillus sp. AZ6-augmented ZnO (BAZ). The experiment was conducted in pots by applying urea granules after coating with BAZ, to evaluate its effects on wheat physiology, antioxidant activity, and productivity under saline (100 mM NaCl) and non-saline (0 mM NaCl) conditions. The results revealed that the application of BAZ-coated urea alleviated salt stress through improving the seed germination, plant height, root length, photosynthetic rate, transpiration rate, stomatal conductance, soil plant analysis development (SPAD) value, number of tillers and grains, spike length, spike weight, 1000-grain weight, antioxidant activity (APX, GPX, GST, GR, CAT, and SOD), and NPK contents in the straw and grains of the wheat plants. Moreover, it also enhanced the Zn contents in the shoots and grains of wheat by up to 29.1 and 16.5%, respectively, over absolute control, under saline conditions. The relationships and variation among all the studied morpho-physio and biochemical attributes of wheat were also studied by principal component (PC) and correlation analysis. Hence, the application of such potential products may enhance nutrient availability and Zn uptake in wheat under salt stress. Therefore, the current study suggests the application of BAZ-coated urea for enhancing wheat’s physiology, antioxidant system, nutrient efficiency, and productivity effectively and economically.
Highlights
Global food production is set to keep growing, even with a projected decline in total arable land over time [1]
A pot study was performed to evaluate the effects of Bacillus sp. AZ6-augmented ZnO (BAZ)-coated urea on wheat performance under salinity stress
The physicochemical characteristics of the pot soil used to produce an artificial salinity of 100 mM NaCl before conducting the experiment were analyzed following standard procedures
Summary
Global food production is set to keep growing, even with a projected decline in total arable land over time [1]. An increase in soil salinity is a serious and global threat to agricultural production. The increase in the total area of salt-affected land from 1986 to 2016 was around 1 billion hectares [3]; that might be due to low rainfall, high evapotranspiration, defective drainage, and/or the successive application of fertilizers, soil amendments, and irrigation water having high salt contents [4]. Ionic stress causes a reduction in potassium (K+ ) uptake and leads to oxidative stress through leaf senescence. It damages the proteins, lipids, DNA, and cellular functions, and inhibits enzymatic and photosynthetic activity through reactive oxygen species (ROS) production [7,8]. Plants usually adopt three main mechanisms of action to tolerate salinity stress: (a) ion exclusion, in which the Na+ transporter lessens the gathering of lethal Na+ inside roots, (b) promoting tissue tolerance through the compartmentalization of toxic
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