Seed Priming with Iron Oxide Nanoparticles Raises Biomass Production and Agronomic Profile of Water-Stressed Flax Plants
Muhammad Waqas Mazhar,
Muhammad Ishtiaq,
Mehwish Maqbool,
Raheel Akram,
Adnan Shahid,
Shadi Shokralla,
Hussein Al-Ghobari,
Abed Alataway,
Ahmed Z. Dewidar,
Ahmed M. El-Sabrout,
Hosam O. Elansary
Affiliations
Muhammad Waqas Mazhar
Department of Botany, Mirpur University of Science and Technology, Mirpur 10250, Pakistan
Muhammad Ishtiaq
Department of Botany, Mirpur University of Science and Technology, Mirpur 10250, Pakistan
Mehwish Maqbool
Department of Botany, Mirpur University of Science and Technology, Mirpur 10250, Pakistan
Raheel Akram
Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, University of Central Punjab, Lahore 54782, Pakistan
Adnan Shahid
Department of Botany, Government College University, Faisalabad 54782, Pakistan
Shadi Shokralla
Centre for Biodiversity Genomics, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
Hussein Al-Ghobari
Department of Agricultural Engineering, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
Abed Alataway
Prince Sultan Bin Abdulaziz International Prize for Water Chair, Prince Sultan Institute for Environmental, Water and Desert Research, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
Ahmed Z. Dewidar
Department of Agricultural Engineering, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
Ahmed M. El-Sabrout
Department of Applied Entomology and Zoology, Faculty of Agriculture (EL-Shatby), Alexandria University, Alexandria 21545, Egypt
Hosam O. Elansary
Plant Production Department, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia
The current study is a field experiment set out to comprehend significance of the iron oxide (IO) nanoparticles for use as seed priming agents and their subsequent impact in alleviating water stress and improving agronomic profile of flax plants. The experimental layout consisted of a split-plot factorial design with one main plot divided into two subplots corresponding to drought and well-irrigated environment. Each of the subplots was divided into five rows of the flax plants raised from iron oxide primed seeds. The seed priming concentrations were 0, 25, 50, 75, and 100 ppm. Seed priming increased stem diameter, stem length, height, fresh weights, and dry weights of plant. The yield attributes, such as number of fruit branches, capsules, seeds per capsule, total fresh and dry stem’s fiber production, were also predominantly improved. The levels of malondialdehyde and hydrogen peroxide were found to decline by 66% and 71%, respectively, upon seed priming, and an enhancement in activity of antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), and catalase (CAT) was also observed by 28%, 56%, and 39%, respectively, documenting the potential of iron oxide particles in mitigating the water stress.
