Abstract
High temperature induces oxidative processes in wheat, the alleviation of which is promising using biostimulants. Priming has been used for enhancing stress tolerance of seedlings. However, the usage of biostimulants for priming is an unexplored area under either normal or stress conditions. Therefore, the aim of our study was to evaluate the heat stress alleviation capability of differentially applied biostimulant treatments on wheat seedlings. The investigation included stress parameters (fresh/dry weight ratio, chlorophyll content estimation, antioxidant capacity and lipid oxidation) combined with biophoton emission measurement, since with this latter non-invasive technique, it is possible to measure and elucidate in vivo stress conditions in real-time using lipid oxidation-related photon emissions. We confirmed that a single biostimulant pretreatment increased antioxidant capacity and decreased biophoton release and lipid oxidation, indicating the reduction of the harmful effects of heat stress. Therefore, biophoton emission proved to be suitable for detecting and imaging the effects of heat stress on wheat seedlings for the first time. Two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed that biostimulant (p = 4.01 × 10−7) treatments, temperature (p = 9.07 × 10−8), and the interaction of the two factors (p = 2.07 × 10−5) had a significant effect on the overall count per second values of biophoton emission, predicting more efficient biostimulant utilization practices, even for seed priming purposes.
Highlights
Wheat is one of the most important cereals [1]
Their results are in line with our studies, as our results showed that biostimulatory pretreatment significantly increased antioxidant capacity, while keeping lipid oxidation levels low, as observed in Biostimulant pretreatment (BPT) samples after 4 days of heat stress
Plants treated with biostimulants had higher antioxidant capacity and dry matter content during heat stress compared to the untreated group, as well as a significant decrease in biophoton release, indicating low lipid oxidation levels
Summary
Wheat is one of the most important cereals [1]. Its applications are very diverse, ranging from food ingredients to feeds; due to its high adaptive capability, wheat is in cultivation worldwide [2] with several varieties selected recently or very ancient [3]. The longer the heat stress lasts, the more negative the effects it has on the physiological processes leading to increased transpiration, but at the same time decreasing stomatal conductance, resulting in a decrease in net assimilation [7]. Heat stress causes a significant decrease in chlorophyll content [8] and photosynthetic and respiratory function, resulting in the formation of free radicals. Free radicals have high reactivity and short lifespans, and may alter the structure and function of many molecules including membranes, leading to altered physiological processes [9]. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) are a group of free radicals that have high affinity for adjacent compounds due to their unpaired electrons, leading to oxidative modifications of proteins, DNA damage and lipid peroxidation; the primary consequence of the latter is the formation of hydroperoxides, which are responsible for damaging other molecules. Non-invasive stress detection and imaging techniques are highly important in plant research, because they enable the physiological responses of plants to be objectively identified and create the opportunity to conduct measurements on the same plant individual later, in a further developmental stage, or in stress conditions [11,12]
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