The role of seaweed extract on improvement drought tolerance of wheat revealed by osmoprotectants and DNA (cpDNA) markers

Abstract

Drought stress is one of the most severe abiotic stresses affecting adversely plant growth, crop production, and various metabolic processes. Using seaweed extract in mitigating water stress adverse effects is highly important for plant production. The present study discussed the physiological role of seaweed extract (Sargassum denticulatum) in improving wheat tolerance to water stress.Water stress (40% of field capacity) caused significant decreases in wheat plant growth parameters (shoot height, fresh, and dry weights of the shoot) as well as with significant decreases in chlorophyll content and starch. Total soluble sugars, free amino acids, proline, and phenolic compounds contents increased in stressed wheat plants irrigated every three weeks compared with control plants. The foliar application of seaweed extract 2% enhanced all growth and yield parameters and more accumulation of the organic solutes in leaves of water-stressed plants. These increases correlated with significant increases in total phenolic contents as compared with control plants. The trnL intron and psbA-trnH intergenic regions of cpDNA were amplified from extracted total genomic DNA. The results indicated that the variation among psbA-trnH intergenic region was more than trnL intron region to distinct the variation of wheat treatments as responsible to water deficit.Foliar spray of seaweeds extract was effective in improving wheat performance by enhancing compatible osmolytes, antioxidant compounds and enhancing variation among non-coding chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) regions trnL intron and psbA-tnH as a response to water deficit.