Silicon Coating on Maize Seed Mitigates Saline Stress in Yermosols of Southern Punjab
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Silicon Coating on Maize Seed Mitigates Saline Stress in Yermosols of Southern Punjab Atique ur Rehman 1 & Rafi Qamar 2 & Abdul Rehman 2 & Allah Wasaya 3 & Omer Farooq 1 & Naeem Sarwar 1 & Muhammad Mazhar Iqbal 4 & Shakeel Ahmad 1 Received: 29 June 2020 / Revised: 9 September 2020 / Accepted: 24 September 2020 # Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract Silicon (Si) has been identified as a key nutrient in plants to lower the pressures of environmental stress. In pot experiment, seeds of different maize hybrids (Pioneer-1543, Monsanto-6103 and Monsanto-6724) were coated with different concentrations of Si viz. 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 mg kg− 1 seed using H2SiO3. Salinity was imposed by adding NaCl (120 mM) into the soil. Saline stressed (without Si coating) plants were observed with a significant decrease in growth and yield, Chl a and b, soluble contents of sugars and proteins, contents of free amino acids and phenols, leaf relative water content (LRWC), superoxide dismutase, catalase, peroxidase and brings only increased in proline contents. However, plants developed from Si coated seeds were recorded with significant improvements in growth and different physiological parameters. Moreover, among Si coated maize, coating with 20 mg Si proved maximum growth and yield in saline condition, which was came with the improvement in photosynthetic contents, osmoprotectants and antioxidant. Furthermore, Si coated plants have significantly lower proline compare than saline stress alone. Taken above results together, it is concluded that Si has significant role in reducing adverse behavior of NaCl in maize growth through bringing a improvement in leaf relative water contents, keeping normal working of chl a and b that enhanced the osmoprotectants concentration rather than proline and motivate the antioxidant system. Thus, our study suggested that Si coating is a viable strategy that can be implemented to bring a significant improvement in maize under saline condition. Keywords NaCl condition . Photosynthetic pigments . Osmoprotectants . Si coating . Maize
1 Introduction In world’s cultivated cereals list, maize occupied 3rd position after wheat and rice. Moreover, it is being cultivated and utilized as a food crop for both human beings and animals [1]. However, for obtaining economic production it is dire need to understand the maize genetic characteristics, plant structure
* Atique ur Rehman [email protected] 1
Department of Agronomy, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan, Pakistan
2
Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, University of Sargodha, Sargodha, Pakistan
3
College of Agriculture, BZU, Bahadur Campus, Punjab Layyah, Pakistan
4
Soil and Water Testing Laboratory, Department of Agriculture, Government of Punjab, Chiniot, Pakistan
and physiology in relation to growth and production [2]. In Pakistan, area under maize cultivation is 1.3 million ha with an annual production of about 6.3 million tonnes having contribution of 2.6% and 0.5% share in value addition and GDP, respectively [3]. In most
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