Alteration in Seed Quality Due to Elevated Ozone in Wheat Cultivars Having Variations in Their Sensitivity Against Ozone
摘要
Tropospheric O3 is now a well-known threat to crops and severely affects their nutritional quality. The present study investigated O3 effects on various seed quality parameters of three wheat cultivars differing in their known O3 sensitivity (sensitive: HD2987, intermediately sensitive: PBW 502, and tolerant: Kharchiya 65). Starch accretion revealed the negative influence of elevated O3 stress having the highest influence on sensitive cultivars and the least noticed in O3 tolerant. Total soluble sugar maximally increased due to O3 exposure in sensitive cultivar HD2987 followed by PBW502 and the least increase in Kharchiya 65. Nonetheless, reducing sugar followed the same pattern as total soluble sugar indicating its significant role in enhancing the amount of total soluble sugar in wheat grains. FTIR results manifested variable shifts in the functional groups (amide bonds) of gluten under elevated O3 conditions, while a significant positive effect on seed protein concentrations in all the cultivars was observed. Dry gluten showed a variable pattern in which the least increment was detected in the intermediately sensitive cultivar and highest in the sensitive cultivar due to O3 exposure. Ash content which reflects grain inorganic content showed the highest reductions in Kharchiya while the lowest changes were observed in HD2987. Overall, the grain quality of sensitive cultivars was affected the most, while tolerant majorly resisted changes in grain quality due to O3 exposure.