Photosynthesis Alterations in Wheat Plants Induced by Herbicide, Soil Drought or Flooding

Dessislava Todorova,Svetoslav Anev,Iskren Sergiev,Vladimir Aleksandrov

doi:10.3390/agronomy12020390

Dessislava Todorova, Svetoslav Anev + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/agronomy12020390

Copy DOI

Abstract

The wheat plants were pretreated with the selective herbicide Serrate® (Syngenta) and subsequently subjected to drought or flooding stress for 7 days. The gas exchange parameters, chlorophyll a fluorescence and leaf pigment content were measured. The measurements were performed during the stress period and after 4 days of plants recovery. Herbicide pretreatment did not cause significant alterations in photosynthesis and fluorescence parameters in alone- or combined-treated seedlings. A significant reduction in gas exchange parameters (net photosynthesis rate, stomatal conductance, transpiration rate, and water use efficiency), Fv/Fm and Fv/F0 values during drought or flooding was observed. The disruption of photosynthesis together with reduction in the pigment content was stronger in droughted than flooded plants. When the normal irrigation was restored, the gas exchange and fluorescence parameters tended to increase. The comparative analysis of recovery and resilience indices of photosynthetic traits indicate that the plants subjected to drought recovered better than those subjected to flooding stress.

Highlights

The extensive agriculture employs different strategies to satisfy the Earth’s population growing needs for food
Drought caused typical phenotypic alterations in both drought and herbicide + drought-treated plants, and they depended on the drought duration
Hassannejad and Porheidar Ghafarbi [21] measured the effects of clodinafop-propagyl on chlorophyll a fluorescence in maize, which is sensitive to this herbicide

Summary

Introduction

The extensive agriculture employs different strategies to satisfy the Earth’s population growing needs for food. Serrate® is a selective herbicide for wheat, rye, and triticale It is developed by Syngenta (Bazel, Switzerland) and consists of two active ingredients: clodinafop-propargyl (prop-2-ynyl(R)-2-(4-(5-chloro-3-fluoro-2-pyridyloxy) phenoxy) propionate)—inhibitor of acetyl co-enzyme A carboxylase, involved into the fatty acids biosynthesis; and pyroxsulam ((N-(5,7-dimethoxy (1,2,4)triazolo (1,5-a) pyrimidin-2-yl)-2methoxy-4-(trifluoromethyl)pyridine-3-sulfonamide))—inhibitor of acetolactate synthase enzyme, involved into the biosynthesis of branched-chain amino acids [2]. During their lifespan, crops are exposed to a number of unfavorable environmental conditions of biotic and abiotic origin which cause considerable yield losses. The plants react to water deficit through a rapid stomata closure to avoid further water losses [3,4,8]

Objectives

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion