posted on 2024-01-02, 14:39authored byAli Ahmad, Zubair Aslam, Rana Nadeem Abbas, Korkmaz Bellitürk, Saddam Hussain, Sadam Hussain, Muhammad Ahmad, Usman Zulfiqar, Ihab Mohamed Moussa, Mohamed S. Elshikh
Background: Wheat,
an important cereal crop, is commonly cultivated
in arid and semiarid areas, and therefore, it often experiences water
deficit conditions. The consequences of induced stress on wheat can
be mitigated through vermicompost amendments. To address drought stress
on wheat seedlings, a pot experiment was conducted in the wire-house
in which two contrasting wheat cultivars, Faisalabad-08 (drought-tolerant)
and Galaxy-13 (drought-sensitive), were exposed to three water level
conditions: well-watered [D0, 70% of field capacity (FC)], moderate
drought (D1, 45% FC), and severe drought (D2, 30% FC). Four rates
of vermicompost, derived from cow dung enriched with cellulolytic
microbes, were applied (VT0, control; VT1, 4 t ha–1; VT2, 6 t ha–1; and VT3, 8 t ha–1) to the experiment. Data on various physiological, biochemical,
and enzymatic antioxidants were recorded. Results: Our results demonstrated
that the drought treatments significantly reduced nutrient accumulation,
chlorophyll and SPAD values, and carotenoid content in both cultivars
where the maximum reduction was recorded for severe drought stress.
Nonetheless, the application of vermicompost significantly improved
these traits, and statistically maximum chlorophyll contents, SPAD
value, and total carotenoid contents were observed for VT1 in both
cultivars under drought treatments. While the lowest chlorophyll and
carotenoid contents were recorded for untreated replicated pots. Among
the cultivars, Faisalabad-08 exhibited greater resistance to drought,
as evidenced by higher values of the aforementioned traits compared
to Galaxy-13. Soil-applied vermicompost also showed a positive influence
on antioxidant enzyme activities in both wheat cultivars grown under
well-watered as well as water-scarce conditions. Conclusions: The
findings of this study revealed that drought conditions substantially
decreased the enzymatic antioxidants and physiological and biochemical
attributes of the wheat crop. However, soil-applied vermicompost,
particularly at an optimum rate, had a positive impact on the wheat
seedlings under drought conditions. Moving forward, exploring the
potential of utilizing cellulolytic microbe-enriched cow dung vermicompost
stands as a promising avenue to mitigate the detrimental effects of
water stress on wheat. Further research in this direction could offer
substantial insights into enhancing wheat resilience and productivity
under water stress conditions.