Hayat Umer, Ul Din Kaleem, Ahmad Muhammad, Zulfiqar Usman, Sajjad Maryium, Maqsood Muhammad Faisal, Soufan Walid, Prasad P V Vara, Djalovic Ivica
Department of Botany, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, 38040, Pakistan.
Department of Agronomy, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, 38040, Pakistan.
Sci Rep. 2025 Jan 29;15(1):3698. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-87236-9.
Wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) productivity and quality can be threatened by soil cadmium (Cd) contamination, posing a concern to food security. Salicylic acid (SA) is an endogenously produced signaling molecule that activates the defense system imparting abiotic stress tolerance in plants. Hence, an experiment was conducted to explore the roles of foliar application of SA in ameliorating Cd toxicity in two wheat varieties. The treatments comprised of, a) Cd stress: i) Cd = control (No Cd), Cd = 500 µM Cd stress at 30 days after sowing (DAS); SA applications: (i) SA = control (No SA) (ii) SA = 0.5 mM SA at 32 DAS, and c) Wheat varieties: (i) Anaj-17 and (ii) Akbar-19. The experiment was carried out with three replicates in a completely randomized design (CRD). The findings of the study have revealed that Cd stress prominently reduced the plant growth and yield, gaseous exchange attributes, and relative water content of both wheat varieties, and more reduction was observed in Anaj-17 as compared to Akbar-19. Plant height, economic yield, photosynthetic rate, and relative water content were decreased by (9.80 and 8.20%), (12.2 and 6.58%), (20 and 11.32%), and (12.5 and 10%) in Anaj-17 and Akbar-19 respectively. Further, SPAD value and chlorophyll fluorescence decreased under Cd toxicity in both wheat cultivars as compared to non-stress conditions. Contrarily, electrolyte leakage and Cd contents were increased in the plants as compared to the control. However, the foliar applications of SA in Cd-stressed plants significantly improved the plant growth and yield attributes, relative water content, gas exchange attributes, and chlorophyll content in both wheat varieties as compared to control-no SA applied. In addition, chlorophyll fluorescence and nutrient uptake were also improved under SA applications as compared to control. However, SA played an ameliorative role in reducing Cd-toxicity by reducing the electrolyte leakage and Cd uptake by the plants. Among the varieties, Akbar-19 outperformed the Anaj-17 to impart Cd toxicity under SA applications based on plant morphophysiological attributes. Hence, the outcomes of the experiment recommended that the foliar treatment of SA amended the Cd tolerance of wheat varieties by improving plant physiological and biochemical attributes.
小麦（Triticum aestivum L.）的生产力和品质可能会受到土壤镉（Cd）污染的威胁，这对粮食安全构成了担忧。水杨酸（SA）是一种内源性产生的信号分子，可激活防御系统，赋予植物非生物胁迫耐受性。因此，进行了一项实验，以探讨叶面喷施SA在改善两个小麦品种镉毒性方面的作用。处理包括：a）镉胁迫：i）镉=对照（无镉），在播种后30天（DAS）施加镉=500 µM镉胁迫；SA施用：（i）SA=对照（无SA），（ii）在32 DAS时SA=0.5 mM SA；c）小麦品种：（i）Anaj-17和（ii）Akbar-19。该实验采用完全随机设计（CRD），进行了三次重复。研究结果表明，镉胁迫显著降低了两个小麦品种的植株生长和产量、气体交换特性以及相对含水量，与Akbar-19相比，Anaj-17的下降幅度更大。Anaj-17和Akbar-19的株高、经济产量、光合速率和相对含水量分别下降了（9.80%和8.20%）、（12.2%和6.58%）、（20%和11.32%）以及（12.5%和10%）。此外，与非胁迫条件相比，两个小麦品种在镉毒性下的SPAD值和叶绿素荧光均下降。相反，与对照相比，植株中的电解质渗漏和镉含量增加。然而，与未施用SA的对照相比，在镉胁迫植株上叶面喷施SA显著改善了两个小麦品种的植株生长和产量特性、相对含水量、气体交换特性以及叶绿素含量。此外，与对照相比，在SA处理下叶绿素荧光和养分吸收也得到了改善。然而，SA通过减少植株的电解质渗漏和镉吸收，在降低镉毒性方面发挥了改善作用。在品种中，基于植株形态生理特性，在SA处理下Akbar-19在赋予镉耐受性方面优于Anaj-17。因此，实验结果表明，叶面喷施SA通过改善植株生理生化特性，提高了小麦品种的镉耐受性。
