Physio-Biochemical and Agronomic Responses of Faba Beans to Exogenously Applied Nano-Silicon Under Drought Stress Conditions

El-Sayed M Desoky,Mohamed I Abdul-Hamid,Hend A Elakkad,Taha F Taha,Elsayed Mansour,Khaled A El-Tarabily,El-Sayed E A El-Sobky,Mohamed A T Yasin,Rania S M Eid,Safaa M A I Arnaout

doi:10.3389/fpls.2021.637783

El-Sayed M Desoky, Mohamed I Abdul-Hamid + Show 8 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2021.637783

Copy DOI

Abstract

Nano-silicon application is an efficient novel approach to mitigate the deleterious impacts of drought stress on field crops, which is expected to increase owing to climate change, especially in arid regions. Two-season field studies investigated the influence of foliar-applied nano-silicon (0.5, 1, and 1.5 mM) on physiological and biochemical attributes and their impacts on crop water productivity (CWP) and the agronomic traits of faba beans (Vicia faba). The plants were evaluated under two irrigation regimes: well-watered (100% ETc giving 406 mm ha−1) and drought stress (65% ETc giving 264 mm ha−1). It was found that drought stress significantly decreased gas exchange (leaf net photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance, and rate of transpiration), water relations (relative water content and membrane stability index), nutrient uptake (N, P, K+, and Ca+2), flavonoids, and phenolic content. In contrast, drought stress significantly increased oxidative stress (H2O2 and ) and enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant activities compared with the well-watered treatment. These influences of drought stress were negatively reflected in seed yield-related traits and CWP. However, foliar treatment with nano-silicon, particularly with 1.5 mM, limited the devastating impact of drought stress and markedly enhanced all the aforementioned parameters. Therefore, exogenously applied nano-silicon could be used to improve the CWP and seed and biological yields of faba bean plants under conditions with low water availability in arid environments.

Highlights

Faba beans (Vicia faba L.) are an important legume crop grown worldwide (Gasim et al, 2015)
The water-deficit treatment significantly decreased plant height, 100-seed weight, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod, seed yield, and aboveground biomass compared with the well-watered treatment (Table 1)
Nano-SiO2 substantially enhanced all agronomic traits compared with the corresponding untreated plants under both watering regimes

Summary

Introduction

Faba beans (Vicia faba L.) are an important legume crop grown worldwide (Gasim et al, 2015). These plants have high crude protein content and essential amino acids (Vogelsang-O’dwyer et al, 2020) and improve soil nitrogen content through the symbiotic fixation of atmospheric nitrogen, which reduces the requirement for nitrogen fertilizer in agricultural production systems. It is crucial to mitigate the deleterious impacts of water deficiency using practical approaches to boost drought tolerance in field crops (Semida et al, 2020; Abd El-Mageed et al, 2021; El-Sanatawy et al, 2021)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion