Abstract
Water-deficit stress negatively affects seed germination, seedling development, and plant growth by disrupting cellular and metabolic functions, reducing the productivity and yield of field crops. In this study, sodium silicate (SS) has been employed as a seed priming agent for acclimation to mild water-deficit stress by invoking priming memory in wheat plants. In pot experiments, the SS-primed (20, 40, and 60 mM) and non-primed control seeds were allowed to grow under normal and mild water-deficit conditions. Subsequently, known methods were followed for physiological and biochemical studies using flag leaves of 98-day mature wheat plants. The antioxidant and hydrolytic enzymes were upregulated, while proteins, reducing sugars, total sugars, and glycine betaine increased significantly in the flag leaves of wheat plants originated from SS-treated seeds compared to the control under mild water-deficit stress. Significant decreases in the malondialdehyde (MDA) and proline contents suggested a controlled production of reactive oxygen species, which resulted in enhanced cell membrane stability. The SS priming induced a significant enhancement in yield, plant biomass, and 100-grain weight of wheat plants under water-deficit stress. The improvement in the yield parameters indicated the induction of Si-mediated stress acclimation in SS-primed seeds that elicited water-deficit tolerance until the maturity of plants, ensuring sustainable productivity of climate-smart plants.
Highlights
Around the world, sustainable agriculture is facing severe threats from ecotoxicological conditions, climate change, and environmental stresses that pose serious challenges to global food security
Pot experiments with a completely randomized design were conducted in three replicates to investigate the effects of silicon-induced priming on mature wheat plants produced from sodium silicate (SS)-primed seeds under normal and mild water-deficit conditions
The SS-treated and non-treated wheat seeds were allowed to germinate in pots under normal and mild drought stress conditions
Summary
Sustainable agriculture is facing severe threats from ecotoxicological conditions, climate change, and environmental stresses that pose serious challenges to global food security. Drought or water deficit has been recognized as the most brutal environmental stress that retards the growth and development of plants by having negative impacts on the physiological, biochemical, and morphological traits. It hampers the normal metabolic, antioxidant, and photosynthetic activation and nutrient movement in plants. Wheat plants experience negative changes in protein contents, antioxidant potential, and hormone composition at the vegetative and reproductive stages under drought It influences the chlorophyll content, cuticle thickness, and opening and closing of the stomata (Bano et al, 2012; Guan et al, 2015; Li et al, 2020). Water limitations severely reduce the uptake and translocation of macro- and micronutrients, which affect leaf–water relations, photosynthesis, and chlorophyll fluorescence, resulting in reduced plant growth, early senescence, and low wheat productivity (Zlatev, 2009; Karim et al, 2012; Wang et al, 2017)
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