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International Conference on

Recent Trends in Environmental Sustainability

ESCON22/ETERM/16
Mitigate drought stress in wheat

2
1,2
2
3
Fahim Nawaz , Abdullah Al-Mamun , Sadia Majeed , Markus Weinmann , and Günter
2
Neumann
1 Department of Agronomy, MNS-University of Agriculture, Multan, Pakistan
2 Department of Nutritional Crop Physiology (340 h), Institute of Crop Science, University of
Hohenheim, 70599-Stuttgart, Germany
3 Department of Agronomy, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur, Pakistan
Correspondence: fahim5382@gmail.com
Abstract

Drought is a complex and challenging environmental stress that severely restricts crop growth
and yield. The defense pathways in plants can be regulated by the application of stress
protective nutrients and minerals, thereby increasing plant resistance to water deficit
conditions. Selenium (Se) is not an essential element but plays a crucial role in mediating
several drought protective processes in plants. In the present study, we performed experiments
to investigate the combined effects of Se and microbial formulations to induce drought
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resistance in spring wheat. Initially, we tested different Se levels (0.1-0.5 mg Se kg soil) to
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find the optimum Se concentration (0.1 mg Se kg ) for wheat. Later the optimized level was
mixed in the soil substrate containing quartz sand (50% w/w) in combination with superior
®
Minigran formulations (Minigran1 and Cons1). The plants were grown under controlled
conditions in a green house, and were exposed to drought (20-25% water holding capacity) for
five weeks after the establishment phase (four weeks). Our results showed that the application
of Se combined with Cons1 significantly reduced the damaging effects of drought on leaf water
®
status and pigments. Both Se and Minigran treatments affected the hormonal status in leaf
tissues and markedly increased abscisic acid, salicylic acid, and jasmonic acid content in wheat
leaves. Also, the Se and the microbial inoculants had a beneficial effect on osmoprotectants,
and particularly increased the activity of total antioxidants but had no effects on the nutrient
status compared with the individual controls under water deficit conditions. Our findings
suggest that Se could be easily included into the formulation of the selected microbial
inoculants to improve drought tolerance and wheat yield.
Keywords: Selenium, Minigran, Hormonal status, Osmoprotectants, Triticum aestivum

Department of Environmental Sciences, COMSATS University Islamabad, Vehari Campus

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