Vermicompost application upregulates morpho-physiological and antioxidant defense to conferring drought tolerance in wheat
Plant stress (Amsterdam), Vol.11, 100360
03/2024
15
Drought stress is an ever‐present threat to wheat growth, development, and productivity, especially in arid and semi-arid areas where rainfall is an essential aid to agriculture. The application of vermicompost has been proven to be an efficient approach to combat the drought-induced growth and developmental limitation of wheat plants and to promote cost-effective and sustainable crop production. A wire-house pot experiment was conducted to examine the effects of cow manure vermicompost on morpho-physiological and biochemical attributes of wheat seedlings under different deficit water levels. The treatments were included: three drought levels; control (70 % of field capacity (FC, D0)), mild drought (45 % of FC, D1), and severe drought (30 % of FC, D1), four vermicompost application rates; control, 4, 6 and 8 t ha−1 (designated as VT0, VT1, VT2 and VT3, respectively), and two contrasting wheat cultivars; Faisalabad-08 (drought tolerant) and Galaxy-13 (drought sensitive). Results showed that vermicompost application improved crop performance under control and drought stress conditions where VT2 depicted significantly higher values in both cultivars, particularly under drought stress. Under severe drought, VT2 increased root fresh weight by 6.13 and 10.63 %, shoot fresh weight by 15.62 % and 23.58 %, root dry weight by 40.81 % and 50 % and shoot dry weight by 20.68 and 22.22 % in Faisalabad-08 and Galaxy-13, respectively. Also, VT2-treated seedlings exhibited significantly higher gas exchange attributes, chlorophyll pigments and antioxidative enzyme activities under drought conditions. Among cultivars, Faisalabad-08 was found comparatively more drought tolerant than Galaxy-13. Our findings demonstrated that drought severely affects morphological, physiological, and biochemical attributes of wheat. However, soil applied vermicompost proved beneficial for improved morphophysiological and biochemical traits under the regime of drought stress in wheat.
- Vermicompost application upregulates morpho-physiological and antioxidant defense to conferring drought tolerance in wheat
- Ali Ahmad - University of Agriculture FaisalabadZubair Aslam - University of Agriculture FaisalabadMuhammad Ahmad - University of Agriculture FaisalabadUsman Zulfiqar - Islamia University of BahawalpurSabeela Yaqoob - University of Agriculture FaisalabadSadam Hussain - Northwest A&F UniversityNabeel Khan Niazi - University of Agriculture FaisalabadKaleem ul din - University of Agriculture FaisalabadManuel Gastelbondo - University of FloridaIbrahim Al-Ashkar - King Saud UniversityMohamed S Elshikh - King Saud University
- Plant stress (Amsterdam), Vol.11, 100360
- Elsevier BV
- 991013161812302368
- © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
- Faculty of Science and Engineering
- English
- Journal article