Mitigatory role of 24-epibrassinolide in alleviating salinity stress in rice with yield parameters: insights from oxidative stress markers and ion homeostasis
摘要
In today’s world, salinity stress stands out as one of the most severe abiotic stresses. In the current research, we have scrutinized the alleviatory efficiency of 24-epibrassinolide (24-EBL) in rice (PB1121 and CSR30) plants against different salinity stress levels (5 dS m−1 and 10 dS m−1). Salinity stress leads to Na+ accumulation in both varieties’ roots, shoots, and leaves, which leads to an enhanced level of reactive oxygen species (ROS), including hydrogen peroxide and malondialdehyde (MDA) content, negatively affecting plant growth, reproduction, and metabolism. However, applying 24-EBL improved the different biochemical, reproductive, and yield parameters by declining the Na+ level, enhancing the K+ content, and eliminating the ROS content. Four µM 24-EBL increases the spikelet number (46.23% and 36.30%) and fertility (12% and 6.87%), tiller number (80% and 33.3%), panicle number (53.85% and 25%), and panicle length (18.2% and 13.1%), weight of grains per panicle (80.33% and 56.69%), and 100 grains weight (10.05 and 7.38%). Ion concentration (Na+, K+), MDA, and H2O2 content were also found to be improved with the 24-EBL application against salinity stress. Higher 24-EBL (4 µM) application was more effective than lower concentration (2 µM) in alleviating salt stress. Results suggest that 24-EBL mitigates the severe consequences of salinity stress by maintaining the Na+ and K+ content. This study also suggests that 24-EBL-mediated alleviation of ion toxicity involves regulating ROS content in plants to control membrane damage and osmotic imbalance. However, more research is required to fully understand the alleviatory mechanism of 24-EBL.