Open Access

ARTICLE

Salt Stress Affects the Growth and Yield of Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) by Altering the Antioxidant Machinery and Expression of Hormones and Stress-Specific Genes

by Shahid Hussain¹, Rui Zhang¹, Shuli Liu¹, Yang Wang¹, Irshad Ahmad², Yinglong Chen¹, Hongyan Hou³, Qigen Dai^1,*

1 Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Crop Genetics and Physiology, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Crop Cultivation and Physiology, Jiangsu Co-innovation Center for Modern Production Technology of Grain Crops, Research Institute of Rice Industrial Engineering Technology, Key Laboratory of Saline-Alkali Soil Improvement and Utilization (Coastal Saline-Alkali Lands), Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, 225000, China
2 Joint International Research Laboratory of Agriculture and Agri-Product Safety of the Ministry of Education of China, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou, 225009, China
3 Yibang Agriculture Technology Development Co., Ltd., Dongying, 257000, China

* Corresponding Author: Qigen Dai. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Physiological and Molecular Interventions in Improving Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Plants)

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany 2023, 92(3), 861-881. https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2023.025487

Received 15 July 2022; Accepted 09 September 2022; Issue published 29 November 2022

Abstract

Understanding physiological responses in saline agriculture may facilitate wheat breeding programs. Based on a screening test, the Ningmai-14 (NM-14) and Yangmai-23 (YM-23) wheat cultivars were selected for further experiments to understand the underlying salinity tolerance mechanism. This study investigated the effects of five salinity levels such as Control (CK) = 0 (without NaCl stress), S1 = 0.20%, S2 = 0.25%, S3 = 0.30% and S4 = 0.35% of NaCl concentrations of soil on wheat plants. The results showed that increased salinity concentration reduced the growth and yield of wheat cultivars (NM-14 and YM-23). However, YM-23 (12.7%) yielded more than NM-14 at maximum salinity stress. The higher salinity (S4) increased the concentration of Na⁺ (4.3 to 5.8-fold) and P contents (2.5 to 2.2-fold), while reducing the average concentrations of K⁺, Cu, and K⁺/Na⁺ ratio. The higher salinity (S4) reduced the spikelet length by 21.35% (followed by grain spike⁻¹), and the starch content by 18.81%. In the YM-23 cultivar, higher salinity increased superoxide dismutase (SOD), total antioxidant capacity (TAC), and amylase. Compared to NM-14, induced expression of TaYUC2, 6, and TaGA13ox, 20ox genes were recorded in YM-23. Similarly, in YM-23 the stress-specific genes such as TaHSP70, 90 were enhanced whereas, TaSOS1, 2 were suppressed. Overall, our study revealed that salt tolerant cultivars modulate hormonal and antioxidant activities, thus maintaining high growth.

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Keywords

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