Seed Priming and Foliar Supplementation withβ-aminobutyric Acid Alleviates Drought Stress through Mitigation of Oxidative Stress and Enhancement of Antioxidant Defense in Linseed(Linum usitatissimum L.)

Drought is one of the critical limitations to agricultural soils and crop plants.Scarcity of water is increasing due to climate change that lead to increasing threats to global food security.Therefore,ecofriendly and cost effective strategies are highly desirable for mitigating drought stress along with sustainable and smart agricultural production.The aim of the study was to mitigate DS using seed priming and exogenous supplementation ofβ-aminobutyric acid(BABA)in linseed(Linum usitatissimum L.).Different doses(0,50,100 and 150μM)of BABA were used for seed priming agent and foliar spraying under three soil moisture levels viz.,25%(SM25),45%(SM45)and 65%(SM65).The response variables of both experiments included different agro-botanical traits and oxidative stress indicators such as melondialdehyde content,free proline accumulation,and antioxidant defense in plants.The linseed plants showed water stress at SM25 that reduced plant height,number of branches per plant,time taken to flower initiation and heading,and root and shoot dry weights.Additionally,the number of capsules and seeds per capsule showed a significant decline at SM25,which led to a drastic reduction in 100-seed weight yield in linseed plants in both experiments.However,seed priming and foliar supplementation with of BABA(50–100μM)significantly improved these morpho-agronomical attributes in linseed plants under DS.The results revealed that the BABA was fully active in linseed plants at SM25.Interestingly,the combination of SM25 with BABA significantly improved the antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase(SOD),catalase(CAT),ascorbate peroxidase(APX),and peroxidase(POD)activity,which significantly enhanced DS tolerance in linseed plants.These findings might be useful to oil seed breeders and farmers linseed for breeding program in linseed plants as well as sustainable agricultural production of oil seed crop plants.

Role of Organic Amendments to Mitigate Cd Toxicity and Its Assimilation in Triticum aestivum L.

In soil biota,higher and enduring concentration of heavy metals like cadmium(Cd)is hazardous and associated with great loss in growth,yield,and quality parameters of most of the crop plants.Recently,in-situ applications of eco-friendly stabilizing agents in the form of organic modifications have been utilized to mitigate the adverse effects of Cd-toxicity.This controlled experiment was laid down to appraise the imprints of various applied organic amendments namely poultry manure(PM),farmyard manure(FYM),and sugarcane press mud(PS)to immobilize Cd in polluted soil.Moreover,phytoavailability of Cd in wheat was also accessed under an alkaline environment.Results revealed that the addition of FYM(5–10 ton ha^(-1))in Cd-contaminated soil significantly increased germination rate,leaf chlorophyll content,plant height,spike length,biological and grain yield amongst all applied organic amendments.Moreover,the addition of FYM(5–10 ton ha^(-1))also reduced the phytoavailability of Cd by 73–85%in the roots,57–83%in the shoots,and 81–90%in grains of wheat crop.Thus,it is affirmed that incorporation of FYM(5–10 ton ha^(-1))performed better to enhance wheat growth and yield by remediating Cd.Thus,the application of FYM(5–10 ton ha^(-1))reduced the toxicity induced by Cd to plants by declining its uptake and translocation as compared to all other applied organic amendments to immobilize Cd under sandy alkaline polluted soil.