Abscisic acid improves drought resilience, growth, physio-biochemical and quality attributes in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) at critical growth stages

Bilal Zulfiqar; Muhammad Aown Sammar Raza; Muhammad Farrukh Saleem; Baber Ali; Muhammad Usman Aslam; Abdullah Ahmed Al-Ghamdi; Mohamed S Elshikh; Mahmood Ul Hassan; Monika Toleikienė; Junaid Ahmed; Muhammad Rizwan; Rashid Iqbal

doi:10.1038/s41598-024-71404-4

Abscisic acid improves drought resilience, growth, physio-biochemical and quality attributes in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) at critical growth stages

Sci Rep. 2024 Sep 2;14(1):20411. doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-71404-4.

Authors

Bilal Zulfiqar^{1

2

3}, Muhammad Aown Sammar Raza⁴, Muhammad Farrukh Saleem⁵, Baber Ali⁶, Muhammad Usman Aslam², Abdullah Ahmed Al-Ghamdi⁷, Mohamed S Elshikh⁷, Mahmood Ul Hassan^{8

3}, Monika Toleikienė⁹, Junaid Ahmed¹⁰, Muhammad Rizwan¹¹, Rashid Iqbal^{12

13}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Environment and Sustainable Development in Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences/Key Laboratory of Agro-Environment, Ministry of Agriculture, Beijing, 100081, People's Republic of China.
² Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur, 63100, Pakistan.
³ Agricultural and Environmental Innovation Research Institute, Liaquatpur, 64000, Pakistan.
⁴ Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur, 63100, Pakistan. aown.sammar@iub.edu.pk.
⁵ Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Faisalabad, Pakistan.
⁶ School of Science, Western Sydney University, Penrith, 2751, Australia.
⁷ Department of Botany and Microbiology, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. 2455, 11451, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
⁸ Department of Ecology and Ecological Engineering, College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, China Agricultural University, 2 W Yuanmingyuan Ave, Haidian, Beijing, 100193, China.
⁹ Institute of Agriculture, Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry, Instituo Al. 1, 58344, Akademija, Kedainiai, Lithuania.
¹⁰ Department of Plant Sciences, Quaid-I-Azam University, Islamabad, 45320, Pakistan.
¹¹ Institute of Crop Science and Resource Conservation (INRES), University of Bonn, 53115, Bonn, Germany. m.rizwan@uni-bonn.de.
¹² Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur, 63100, Pakistan. rashid.iqbal@iub.edu.pk.
¹³ Department of Life Sciences, Western Caspian University, Baku, Azerbaijan. rashid.iqbal@iub.edu.pk.

Abstract

Wheat is an important staple crop not only in Pakistan but all over the globe. Although the area dedicated to wheat cultivation expands annually, the quantity of wheat harvested is declining due to various biotic and abiotic factors. Global wheat production and output have suffered as a result of the drought, which is largely driven by a lack of water and environmental factors. Organic fertilizers have been shown to reduce the severity of drought. The current research was conducted in semi-arid climates to mitigate the negative effects of drought on wheat during its critical tillering (DTS), flowering (DFS), and grain filling (DGFS) stages through the application of three different abscisic acid treatments: ABA₀ (0 mgL^-1) control, ABA₁ (100 mgL^-1) and ABA₂ (200 mgL^-1). Wheat growth and yield characteristics were severely harmed by drought stress across all critical development stages, with the DGFS stage being particularly vulnerable and leading to a considerable loss in yield. Plant height was increased by 24.25%, the number of fertile tillers by 25.66%, spike length by 17.24%, the number of spikelets per spike by 16.68%, grain count per spike by 11.98%, thousand-grain weight by 14.34%, grain yield by 26.93% and biological yield by 14.55% when abscisic acid (ABA) was applied instead of the control treatment. Moreover, ABA₂ increased the more physiological indices (water use efficiency (36.12%), stomatal conductance (44.23%), chlorophyll a (24.5%), chlorophyll b (29.8%), transpiration rate (23.03%), photosynthetic rate (24.84%), electrolyte leakage (- 38.76%) hydrogen peroxide (- 18.09%) superoxide dismutase (15.3%), catalase (20.8%), peroxidase (- 18.09%), and malondialdehyde (- 13.7%)) of drought-stressed wheat as compared to other treatments. In the case of N, P, and K contents in grain were maximally improved with the application of ABA₂. Through the use of principal component analysis, we were able to correlate our results across scales and provide an explanation for the observed effects of ABA on wheat growth and production under arid conditions. Overall, ABA application at a rate of 200 mgL^-1 is an effective technique to boost wheat grain output by mitigating the negative effects of drought stress.

Keywords: Abscisic acid; Antioxidants; Drought; Water use efficiency; Wheat.

MeSH terms

Abscisic Acid* / metabolism
Chlorophyll / metabolism
Droughts*
Photosynthesis / drug effects
Plant Growth Regulators / metabolism
Plant Growth Regulators / pharmacology
Stress, Physiological
Triticum* / drug effects
Triticum* / growth & development
Triticum* / metabolism
Triticum* / physiology

Substances

Abscisic Acid
Chlorophyll
Plant Growth Regulators