Influence of SDHI Seed Treatment on the Physiological Conditions of Spring Barley Seedlings under Drought Stress

Dominika Radzikowska,Przemysław Łukasz Kowalczewski,Marcin Nowicki,Monika Grzanka,Romana Głowicka-Wołoszyn,Andrzej Blecharczyk,Zuzanna Sawinska

doi:10.3390/agronomy10050731

Dominika Radzikowska, Przemysław Łukasz Kowalczewski + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy10050731

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Abstract

Seed treatments help reduce the pathogen load and thus improve the condition of plants from their earliest developmental stages, but they can have impacts beyond their basic fungicide protection role. In this study, we investigated how seven spring barley seed treatments affected the plants’ physiological state. The tested seed treatments differed significantly in their impacts on the vigor parameters of barley seeds and on the physiological state of seedlings under drought stress and after regeneration. Seed treatments based on substances from the succinate-dehydrogenase-inhibitors (SDHI) group did not cause inhibition of seedling growth and also display by the highest vigor index values. Using the analysis of photosynthesis-related parameters, we showed that seed treatments from the SDHI group provided a superior tolerance of the imposed drought in spring barley than other treatments. In addition to protection against abiotic stress, SDHI treatments also rendered a higher efficiency of photochemical reactions in the treated plants.

Highlights

Both seeds and soil can be a source of pathogens potentially weakening the plant development, and reducing the quantity and quality of the crop [1]
Seeds treated with prothioconazole plus tebuconazole showed the lowest germination energy and germination capacity as compared to other analyzed seed treatments
The seed treatments used significantly changed the values of the calculated vigor index

Summary

Introduction

Both seeds and soil can be a source of pathogens potentially weakening the plant development, and reducing the quantity and quality of the crop [1]. Seed treatment helps reduce the pathogen load and improves the condition of plants from their earliest developmental stages [2,3,4,5]. Methionine demethylation inhibitors affecting sterol biosynthesis in fungi (especially triazoles, imidazoles, and pyrimidines) are the most important group of systemic fungicides currently used to treat seeds [7]. A delay in the extension of the primary leaf after seed treatment with substances from the triazole group has been described in many

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