Abstract
This study was designed to assess the effect of nanosilicab fertilizer on Triticum aestivum under drought stress. The plants were grown in pots having the soil incubated with SiO2 NPs, biofertilizer and nanosilicab. The experimental design was completely randomized design and drought stress was applied at stem elongation stage. Plants were maintained in the pots till the collection of yield. Nanosilicab enhanced the germination percentage, germination index, and germination vigor index by 23.07%, 14.49%, and 93.10% under control and 14.42%, 10.52%, and 46.15% under drought stress. In the pot experiment, the soil was treated with 150 mg/kg silicon dioxide nanoparticles (SiO2), 1% biofertilizer and, 1% nanosilicab before sowing. Nanosilicab increased shoot length and root length by 34.77%, and 16.88% under control and 30.58%, and 21.56% under stress conditions, respectively. It also increased photosynthetic pigments, osmolytes content, relative water content, membrane stability index, phenol, and flavonoid content. The increase in antioxidant activity was significant by the application of nanosilicab i.e. the augmentation in catalase, peroxidase, and superoxide dismutase was 68.65%, 83.69%, and 85.99%, respectively. It also increased indole acetic acid and cytokinin by 22.28% and 14.79% in comparison to control. The improvement in hundred-grain weight and grains per spike by the use of nanosilicab was 36.25%, and 38.76% under control, and 27.47%, and 22.59% under stress conditions. The positive effect of nanosilicab on the roots of the plants improved the growth of plants significantly and this fertilizer showed potential for application on crops.
Highlights
Drought stress is a global issue that damages the economy of different countries by imparting negative effects on crops
The maximum values of these parameters were recorded in seeds treated with nanosilicab i.e. the improvement was 23.07%, 14.49% and, 93.10%
These findings were similar as reported by Emamverdian et al, (2021) who reported that the application of SiO2 NPs improved the germination percentage, germination rate, germination index and, vigor index of Phyllostachys edulis in stress conditions
Summary
Drought stress is a global issue that damages the economy of different countries by imparting negative effects on crops. They perform their role as signaling molecules to increase the flux of Ca2+ and abscisic acid in the cells While their high synthesis causes damaging effects on plants. The decrease in carboxylation, gaseous exchange, and rate of photosynthesis while the increase in lipid peroxidation, electrolyte leakage was reported in six ecotypes of T. aestivum under water stress (Khalvandi et al 2021) They considerably decrease the growth of Oryza sativa (Ahmed et al 2021a), Medicago sativa (Tyshchenko et al, 2020), Beta vulgaris (AlKahtani et al 2021), Nicotiana tabacum (Begum et al 2021), Punica granatum (Zahedi et al 2021) and affect various other crops. This situation reinforces the need to develop a suitable approach that decrease the damaging effects of water stress and improves the germination, establishment, and yield of crops
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