Abstract
The elimination of broadleaf weeds from agricultural fields has become an urgent task in plant and environment protection. Allelopathic control is considered a potential approach because of its exclusive and ecological safety measures. Plant secondary metabolites also called allelochemicals are released from plant leaves, roots, stem, bark, flowers and play significant roles in soil rhizosphere signaling, chemical ecology, and plant defense. The present study was carried out to evaluate the impact of two allelochemicals; ferulic acid (FA) and p-hydroxybenzoic acid (pHBA) on photosynthetic characteristics; Fv/Fm: efficiency of photosystem II photochemistry in the dark-adapted state; ΦPSII: photosynthetic quantum yield; NPQ, non-photochemical quenching; qP, photochemical quenching, and photon energy dissipation (1−qP)/NPQ in Rumex acetosa following 6 days exposure. R. acetosa seedlings were grown in perlite culture, irrigated with Hoagland solution and treated with allelopathic compounds FA and pHBA and were evaluated against the photosynthetic attributes. Both compounds behaved as potent inhibitors of photosynthetic traits such as Fv/Fm, ΦPSII, qP, and NPQ in R. acetosa. Photon energy dissipation (1−qP)/NPQ increased significantly from days 3 to 6. Higher dissipation of absorbed energy indicates the inactivation state of reaction centers and their inability to effectively use the absorbed energy in photosynthesis. These results indicated the potential allelopathic application of FA and pHBA for control of broadleaf weed, Rumex acetosa.
Highlights
Weeds are noneconomic, unwanted and harmful vegetations that compete with other plants for water, space, nutrients, and light and cause significant loss to both agriculture and horticulture sectors worldwide [1]
The present study was carried out to evaluate the impact of two allelochemicals, ferulic acid (FA) and p-hydroxybenzoic acid, on photosynthetic characteristics at four concentrations (1.5, 1.0, 0.5, 0.1 mM)
Our results demonstrate the phytotoxicity of ferulic acid (FA) and p-hydroxybenzoic acid in the model broadleaf weed (Rumex acetosa L.), and explored their interactions with plant photosystem II photochemistry, fluorescence quenching coefficients, and photon energy dissipation attributes
Summary
Weeds are noneconomic, unwanted and harmful vegetations that compete with other plants for water, space, nutrients, and light and cause significant loss to both agriculture and horticulture sectors worldwide [1]. Herbicides are an important source of weed control agents but due to their ecological impact and weed resistance problems have caused a significant pressure to search for plant based natural solutions as alternative weed management strategies. Natural products from living organisms, plants, fungi, and bacteria are a huge source of environmentally friendly “bioherbicides” that can overcome the herbicide resistance problem [2]. Plant based natural compounds have received much attention from scientists involved in natural product research [3]. Knowing the role of allelochemicals in plant interactions and distinguishing their effects from those of resource competition is controversial in plant interference investigations. Significant progress has been achieved during the previous year by the Callaway group [4] who reported that allelopathy is a separate phenomenon from general resource competition. Allelopathic compounds are present in almost all plant parts (like roots, seeds, leaves, fruits, and stems) and released to the environment through volatilization, leaching, exudation, or decomposition [5,6,7]
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