Open Access

ARTICLE

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

Tauqeer Ahmad Yasir^1,2, Muhammad Ateeq^1,3, Allah Wasaya^1,2,*, Mubshar Hussain², Naeem Sarwar², Khuram Mubeen⁴, Mudassir Aziz⁴, Muhammad Aamir Iqbal⁵, Chukwuma C. Ogbaga⁶, Ibrahim Al-Ashkar⁷, Md Atikur Rahman⁸, Ayman El Sabagh^9,10,*

1 Department of Agronomy, University of Layyah, Layyah, 31200, Pakistan
2 Department of Agronomy, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, 60000, Pakistan
3 State Key Lab of Crop Stress Biology for Arid Areas, College of Agronomy, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, 712100, China
4 Department of Agronomy, MNS University of Agriculture, Multan, 60000, Pakistan
5 Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Poonch Rawalakot, Rawalakot, 10250, Pakistan
6 Independent Researcher, Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire, UK
7 Plant Production Department, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, P.O. Box 2460, Riyadh, 11451, Saudi Arabia
8 Grassland and Forage Division, National Institute of Animal Science, Rural Development Administration, Cheonan, 31000, Korea
9 Department of Field Crops, Faculty of Agriculture, Siirt University, Siirt, 56100, Turkey
10 Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafr El-Shaikh, 33516, Egypt

* Corresponding Authors: Allah Wasaya. Email: ; Ayman El Sabagh. Email:

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany 2023, 92(11), 3113-3131. https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2023.029502

Received 22 February 2023; Accepted 24 July 2023; Issue published 24 October 2023

Abstract

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 of β-aminobutyric acid (BABA) in linseed (Linum usitatissimum L.). Different doses (0, 50, 100 and 150 µM) 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 (50–100 µM) 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.

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