Abstract
In the present investigation, we study the effect of Bacillus thuringiensis MH161336 (106–8 CFU/cm3), silicon (25 mL L−1), and carrot extract (75 mL L−1) as seed primers, individually or in combination, on morphological, physio-biochemical and yield components of drought-stressed pea plants (Master B) during 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 seasons. Our results indicated that drought causes a remarkable reduction in plant height, leaf area, number of leaves per plant, and number of flowers per plant in stressed pea plants during two seasons. Likewise, number of pods, pod length, seeds weight of 10 dried plants, and dry weight of 100 seeds were decreased significantly in drought-stressed pea plants. Nevertheless, seed priming with the individual treatments or in combination boosted the morphological, physio-biochemical, and yield characters of pea plants. The best results were obtained with the Bacillus thuringiensis + carrot extract treatment, which led to a remarkable increase in the number of leaves per plant, leaf area, plant height, and number of flowers per plant in stressed pea plants in both seasons. Moreover, pod length, number of seeds per pod, seeds weight of 10 dried plants, and dry weight of 100 seeds were significantly increased as well. Bacillus thuringiensis + carrot extract treatment led to improved biochemical and physiological characters, such as relative water content, chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, regulated the up-regulation of antioxidant enzymes, increased seed yield, and decreased lipid peroxidation and reactive oxygen species, mainly superoxide and hydrogen peroxide, in drought-stressed pea plants.
Highlights
Our obtained results revealed that drought led to a remarkable decrease in leaf area, plant height and number of leaves plant− 1 compared to the control treatment (Figure 1); seed priming with Bacillus thuringiensis, silicon, and carrot extract, individually or in combination (Bacillus thuringiensis + silicon or Bacillus thuringiensis + carrot extract), showed a significant increase in the number of leaves plant− 1, plant height and leaf area plant− 1 compared to the stressed untreated plants during 2019/2020 and 2020/2021 seasons
Seed priming with Bacillus thuringiensis, silicon, and carrot extract, individually or in combination (Bacillus thuringiensis + silicon or Bacillus thuringiensis + carrot extract), led to a significant increase in the number of flowers plant− 1, number of pods plant− 1 and pod length in pea plants under drought
Seed priming with Bacillus thuringiensis, silicon, and carrot extract, individually or in combination (Bacillus thuringiensis + silicon or Bacillus thuringiensis + carrot extract), led to a significant increase in the number of flowers plant−1, number of pods plant−1 and pod length in pea plants under drought
Summary
Pisum sativum L. is one of the most essential vegetable winter crops cultivated in Egypt, and most cultivars are grown for fresh and dry seeds because it contains a high amount of protein, vitamins, carbohydrates, and minerals like iron, phosphorus, and zinc [1].Increasing the growth and yield of pea plants and other economic plants is considered an important target; there are many environmental factors that affect and harm the growth stages of many plants, such as salinity on strawberry, sweet pepper, rice, cucumber, and faba bean [2,3,4,5,6,7], and drought stress on faba bean, barley, sugar beet, maize and wheat plants [8,9,10,11,12,13,14].Drought is one of the most serious problems in many countries, inEgypt [8]. The growth stages of many plants were adversely affected, and many physiological changes were recorded, such as the decline in stem height, leaf number, leaf area, chlorophyll content, and sugar yield [9,14]. Physio-biochemical parameters such as relative water content, proline content, lipid peroxidation, superoxide, hydrogen peroxide, electrolyte leakage, and enzymes activity, as well as yield, were negatively affected under drought conditions in barley, faba bean, sugar beet, maize, wheat, and rice plants [7,12,15,16,17]. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) such as hydrogen peroxide (H2 O2 ) and superoxide (O2 − ), malondialdehyde (MDA) and electrolyte leakage (EL), are the main signals of biotic and abiotic stresses [18,19,20,21]
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