Silicon alleviates drought stress by up-regulating physiological and biochemical responses in two contrasting bread wheat cultivars
Ashfaq, Waseem, Kaleem, Muhammad, Brodie, Graham, Fuentes, Sigfredo, Pang, Alexis, and Gupta, Dorin (2025) Silicon alleviates drought stress by up-regulating physiological and biochemical responses in two contrasting bread wheat cultivars. Cereal Research Communications, 53 (3). pp. 1441-1453.
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Abstract
Drought stress (DS) substantially reduces plant growth and productivity in a rainfed cropping environment. Silicon (Si) has been recognized for its potential to alleviate the detrimental effects of various environmental stresses. However, its precise mechanisms in mitigating early growth DS and its impact on related physiological and biochemical attributes remain less understood. The present study, conducted in a glasshouse using a complete randomized design with four replications, was aimed to explore the role of pre-sowing Si treatment on two contrasting wheat cultivars (RAC875, drought-tolerant; Kukri, drought-susceptible) in mitigating the physiological and biochemical disruptions induced by early growth DS (14 days at 38 ± 3% pot field capacity). The results showed that Si treatment significantly increased the number of productive tillers and fresh weight in both cultivars under DS. Compared to the control (DS without Si treatment), Si treatment significantly enhanced chlorophyll content (RAC875, 8.7%; Kukri, 12.7%), relative water content (RAC875, 10.8%; Kukri, 18.1%), and chlorophyll fluorescence (RAC875, 10.1%; Kukri, 22.3%) under DS conditions. Additionally, Si treatment increased total soluble sugars, fructose content, and free amino acids while reducing proline content and lipid peroxidation concentrations in both cultivars under DS. Moreover, Si treatment significantly boosted cellular antioxidant activities, including ascorbate peroxidase (RAC875, 11.3%; Kukri, 9.2%), catalase (RAC875, 22.2%; Kukri, 25.5%), and peroxidase (RAC875, 19%; Kukri, 15.8%) under DS. Overall, these results show that Si effectively alleviates early growth DS by up-regulating antioxidants, osmoprotectants, and the photochemical process, thereby improving plant growth and productivity through enhanced photosynthesis.
| Item ID: | 87804 |
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| Item Type: | Article (Research - C1) |
| ISSN: | 0133-3720 |
| Keywords: | Antioxidants, Drought stress, Oxidative stress, Silicic acid, Triticum aestivum |
| Copyright Information: | © The Author(s) 2025. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. |
| Date Deposited: | 23 Feb 2026 07:07 |
| FoR Codes: | 30 AGRICULTURAL, VETERINARY AND FOOD SCIENCES > 3004 Crop and pasture production > 300401 Agrochemicals and biocides (incl. application) @ 100% |
| SEO Codes: | 26 PLANT PRODUCTION AND PLANT PRIMARY PRODUCTS > 2603 Grains and seeds > 260312 Wheat @ 100% |
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