Salicylic acid and thiourea mitigate salinity and drought stress in wheat (Triticum aestivum)

TARAMANI YADAV; GAJENDER YADAV; ASHWANI KUMAR; DINESH KUMAR; RK YADAV

doi:10.56093/ijas.v92i12.103879

Authors

TARAMANI YADAV ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana 132 001, India
GAJENDER YADAV ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana 132 001, India
ASHWANI KUMAR ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana 132 001, India
DINESH KUMAR ICAR-National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana
RK YADAV ICAR-Central Soil Salinity Research Institute, Karnal, Haryana 132 001, India

https://doi.org/10.56093/ijas.v92i12.103879

Keywords:

Salicylic acid, Salinity, Thiourea, Water deficit, Wheat

Abstract

Water and salinity stresses are the major environmental concerns limiting crop production, particularly in arid and semi-arid ecologies. Focused research is required to develop mitigating strategies to manage such stresses. Application of plant-bioregulators (PBRs) may be an effective option to manage water and salinity stresses. Therefore, a field experiment was conducted during 2016–17 and 2017–18 at semi-arid saline site of NW (north-western) India to assess the effectiveness of salicylic acid and thiourea in easing out the adverse effect of variable water deficit and irrigation water salinity regimes. Increasing water deficit and its salinity significantly (P<0.001) reduced all the studied growth parameters, viz. plant height, crop stand, no. of tillers, leaf area index and relative growth rate; and yield attributes like no. of effective tillers, spike length, grains/spike, grain weight/spike, 1000-grain weight, specific weight. Application of either salicylic acid or thiourea significantly improved growth parameters in comparison to control and thiourea proved more effective. Thiourea application improved grain yield by 3.96 and 17.36%, biological yield by 4.21 and 14.82%, effective no. of tillers by 3.77 and 11.91%, weight/spike by 2.83 and 15.17%, 1000-grain weight by 3.72 and 12.66% and specific weight by 2.04 and 8.84% compared to salicylic acid and control, respectively. This might be due to better nutrient uptake, water relations, enhanced CO2 fixation and effective partitioning of assimilates. Thus, thiourea and salicylic acid application in wheat found better as compared to control under saline water stress.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Bali A, Singh A, Minhas P S and Yadav R K. 2020. Effect of plant bioregulators and their combinations on growth and yield of wheat under sodicity stress induced by alkali water irrigation. Journal of Soil Salinity and Water Quality 12(1): 45–49.

Dhansu P, Kulshrestha N, Kumar R, Raja A K, Pandey S K, Goel V and Ram B. 2021. Identification of drought-tolerant co-canes based on physiological Traits, yield attributes and drought tolerance indices. Sugar Tech 23(4): 747–61. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12355-021-00967-7

Doorenbos J and Pruitt W O. 1977. Background and development of methods to predict reference crop evapotranspiration (ETo). Appendix II in FAO-ID-24, pp. 108–19.

El-Hendawy S E, Hassan W M, Al-Suhaibani N A, Refay Y and Abdella K A. 2017. Comparative performance of multivariable agro-physiological parameters for detecting salt tolerance of wheat cultivars under simulated saline field growing conditions. Frontiers in Plant Science 8: 435. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2017.00435

Fatima M Z, Ahmed Z, Aslam M and Zaynab M. 2018. Drought effect and tolerance potential of wheat: A mini-review. International Journal of Nanotechnology and Allied Sciences 2(2): 16–21.

Jiang J, Huo Z, Feng S and Zhang C. 2012. Effect of irrigation amount and water salinity on water consumption and water productivity of spring wheat in North west China. Field Crop Research 137: 78–88. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fcr.2012.08.019

Kaya M D, Okçu G, Atak M, Cıkılı Y and Kolsarıcı O. 2006. Seed treatments to overcome salt and drought stress during germination in sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.). European Journal of Agronomy 24(4): 291–95. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eja.2005.08.001

Khan M I R, Fatma M, Per T S, Anjum N A and Khan N A. 2015. Salicylic acid-induced abiotic stress tolerance and underlying mechanisms in plants. Frontiers in Plant Science 6: 462. DOI: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2015.00462

Kumar A, Sharma S K, Lata C, Devi R, Kulshrestha N, Krishnamurthy S L, Singh K and Yadav R K. 2018. Impact of water deficit (salt and drought) stress on physiological, biochemical and yield attributes on wheat (Triticum aestivum) varieties. Indian Journal of Agricultural Sciences 88(10): 1624–32.

Kumar A, Singh J, Kumar A, Krishnamurthy S L and Mann A. 2022. Relative performance of wheat genotypes under individual and combined water deficit and salinity stress. Indian Journal of Experimental Biology 60: 49.

Manai J, Kalai T, Gouia H and Corpas F J. 2014. Exogenous nitric oxide (NO) ameliorates salinity-induced oxidative stress in tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) plants. Journal of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition 14(2): 433–46. DOI: https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-95162014005000034

Mandal A K, Reddy G P O and Ravisankar T. 2011. Digital database of salt affected soils in India using Geographic Information System. Journal of Soil Salinity and Water Quality 3(1): 16–29.

Pooja and Sharma K D. 2016. Salicylic acid induced amelioration of salinity stress in mungbean. Scholars Press, Omni Scriptum GmbH & Co. KG, Germany.

SAS Institute Inc. 2010. SAS/QC 9.2: User’s Guide. Cary, NC, 2nd edn. http://www.sas.com

Seleiman M F and Kheir A M. 2018. Saline soil properties, quality and productivity of wheat grown with bagasse ash and thiourea in different climatic zones. Chemosphere 193: 538–46. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2017.11.053

Singh P, Choudhary O P and Singh P. 2018. Performance of some wheat cultivars under saline irrigation water in field conditions. Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis 49(3): 334–43. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00103624.2018.1427258

Srivastava A K, Pasala R, Minhas P S and Suprasanna P. 2016. Plant bioregulators for sustainable agriculture: integrating redox signaling as a possible unifying mechanism. Advances in Agronomy 137: 237–78. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.agron.2015.12.002

Wahid A, Basra S and Farooq M. 2017. Thiourea: A Molecule with Immense Biological Significance for Plants. International Journal of Agriculture and Biology 19(4): 911–20. DOI: https://doi.org/10.17957/IJAB/15.0464

Wakchaure G C, Minhas P S, Ratnakumar P and Choudhary R L. 2016. Optimising supplemental irrigation for wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) and the impact of plant bio-regulators in a semi-arid region of Deccan Plateau in India. Agricultural Water Management 172: 9–17. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agwat.2016.04.004

Yadav R K and Dagar J C. 2016. Innovations in utilization of poor-quality water for sustainable agricultural production. Innovative Saline Agriculture, 1st edn, pp. 219–63. Springer, New Delhi. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2770-0_11

Yadav R K, Singh S P, Lal D and Kumar A. 2007. Fodder production and soil health with conjunctive use of saline and good quality water in ustipsamments of a semi-arid region. Land Degradation and Development 18(2): 153–61. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/ldr.776

Yadav T, Kumar A, Yadav R K, Yadav G, Kumar R and Kushwaha M. 2020. Salicylic acid and thiourea mitigate the salinity and drought stress on physiological traits governing yield in pearl millet-wheat. Saudi Journal of Biological Sciences 27(8): 2010–17. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sjbs.2020.06.030