Foliar Application of Salicylic Acid Improved Growth, Yield, Quality and Photosynthesis of Pea (Pisum sativum L.) by Improving Antioxidant Defense Mechanism under Saline Conditions

Abstract

Pea is an important legume crop because of its higher bioactive compounds, and its seeds are famous as functional foods. However, the yield of pea is still limited because of multiple biotic and abiotic stresses which prevailed during the growth period. Saline conditions significantly hamper pea growth, yield, and quality among abiotic stresses. Salicylic acid is effective for the activation of oxidative, non-oxidative, osmolytes, and metabolites. Hence, the present study was conducted at exogenous application of salicylic acid (control, 1 µM, 2 µM, and 3 µM) to mitigate the adverse effects of salt stress (control, 25 mM, 50 mM, and 100 mM NaCl) in pea plants grown in the year 2019–2020. The aim of the present study was to evaluate pea performance under saline conditions by salicylic acid sprays. Pea growth and yield were significantly decreased at 100 mM NaCl compared with the control and other salinity levels. Moreover, the growth and yield of pea were improved under exogenous application of salicylic acid treatment at 3 µM than others. Quality traits, i.e., carotenoids, ascorbic acid, and phenolic content, were decreased at 100 mM NaCl, and these quality traits were significantly improved under salicylic acid treatment of 3 µM. Chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, total chlorophyll, photosynthesis, and stomatal conductance were reduced at 100 mM NaCl. In contrast, photosynthetic pigments, photosynthesis, and stomatal conductance were enhanced at 3 µM salicylic acid. The increases in SOD, CAT, POD, and APX were observed at 100 mM NaCl and 3 µM salicylic acid. The current study proved that exogenous application of salicylic acid concentrations had the potential to mitigate the salinity’s adverse effects by maintaining the physiological and metabolic activities of pea plants.

Fisiologia e componentes de produção do algodoeiro sob estresse salino e aplicação de ácido salicílico

“…The beneficial effects of applying SA at low concentrations may be related to the prevention of auxin oxidation (Vicente & Plasencia, 2011) and elimination of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in plant cells. A reduction in ROS prevents plants from oxidative damage and osmotic stress, maintaining the mechanism of photosynthesis and of photosynthetic pigments (Naz et al, 2022).…”

Physiological and Transcriptional Analysis Provides Insights into Tea Saponin Biosynthesis and Regulation in Response to SA in Camellia vietnamensis Huang

“…The correlation coefficient between the transcriptome data calculated by the Pearson method and RT-qPCR was 0.811 (Figure 7B), indicating that the transcriptome data were accurate. SA can not only cause a variety of physiological reactions in plants by activating plant defense systems such as improving plant stress resistance, activating plant signal transduc-tion, and related gene expression, but it can also induce the synthesis and accumulation of some secondary metabolites [8,32] such as triterpenoid saponin [9,22], flavonoids [33], and terpene lactones [24]. The study found that exogenous application of SA could promote the accumulation of saponins in Polygala tenuifolia root [23] and induce the biosynthesis of saponins in ginseng suspension cells [34].…”

“…MDA is the product of membrane peroxidation and can reflect the peroxidation degree of lipids in plant cell membranes [37,38]. Naz et al [32] found that the activities of SOD, CAT, POD, and APX increased after high-concentration SA treatment in Pisum sativum. In this study, it was found that a low concentration of SA (4 mM) reduced MDA content and O 2 − production rate and enhanced SOD activity in a certain period of time, while a high concentration of SA (20 mM) promoted the accumulation of MDA and H 2 O 2 and reduced SOD activity (12 h), indicating that a high concentration of SA causes certain damage to the cell membrane of C. vietnamensis leaves.…”

Phytohormones Promote the Growth, Pigment Biosynthesis and Productivity of Green Gram [Vigna radiata (L.) R. Wilczek]

“…Among plant nutrition management strategies, the application of growth regulators such as salicylic acid (SA) has the potential to trigger the growth of crop plants, leading to higher grain yield [12][13][14][15][16][17]. SA is a natural plant hormone which belongs to the group of plant phenolics that possess an aromatic ring bearing a hydroxyl group [13,14,[18][19][20].…”