Biochar-Mediated Control of Metabolites and Other Physiological Responses in Water-Stressed <i>Leptocohloa fusca</i>
Khansa Saleem,
Muhammad Ahsan Asghar,
Ali Raza,
Hafiz Hassan Javed,
Taimoor Hassan Farooq,
Muhammad Arslan Ahmad,
Altafur Rahman,
Abd Ullah,
Baiquan Song,
Junbo Du,
Fei Xu,
Aamir Riaz,
Jean W. H. Yong
Affiliations
Khansa Saleem
Department of Horticultural Sciences, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur 63100, Pakistan
Muhammad Ahsan Asghar
Department of Biological Resources, Agricultural Institute, Centre for Agricultural Research, ELKH, 2 Brunzvik St., 2462 Martonvásár, Hungary
Ali Raza
Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
Hafiz Hassan Javed
College of Agronomy, Sichuan Agricultural University, Wenjiang, Chengdu 611130, China
Taimoor Hassan Farooq
Bangor College China, A Joint Unit of Bangor University and Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha 410004, China
Muhammad Arslan Ahmad
Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Marine Bioresource and Eco-Environmental Science, College of Life Sciences and Oceanography, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China
Altafur Rahman
Department of Biological Resources, Agricultural Institute, Centre for Agricultural Research, ELKH, 2 Brunzvik St., 2462 Martonvásár, Hungary
Abd Ullah
Xinjiang Key Laboratory of Desert Plant Roots Ecology and Vegetation Restoration, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, China
Baiquan Song
Engineering Research Center of Agricultural Microbiology Technology, Ministry of Education & Heilongjiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Ecological Restoration and Resource Utilization for Cold Region & School of Life Sciences, Heilongjiang University, Harbin 150080, China
Junbo Du
College of Agronomy, Sichuan Agricultural University, Wenjiang, Chengdu 611130, China
Fei Xu
Applied Biotechnology Center, Wuhan University of Bioengineering, Wuhan 430415, China
Aamir Riaz
Department of Horticultural Sciences, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur 63100, Pakistan
Jean W. H. Yong
Department of Biosystems and Technology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, 23456 Alnarp, Sweden
We investigated biochar-induced drought tolerance in Leptocohloa fusca (Kallar grass) by exploring the plant defense system at physiological level. L. fusca plants were exposed to drought stress (100%, 70%, and 30% field capacity), and biochar (BC), as an organic soil amendment was applied in two concentrations (15 and 30 mg kg−1 soil) to induce drought tolerance. Our results demonstrated that drought restricted the growth of L. fusca by inhibiting shoot and root (fresh and dry) weight, total chlorophyll content and photosynthetic rate. Under drought stress, the uptake of essential nutrients was also limited due to lower water supply, which ultimately affected metabolites including amino and organic acids, and soluble sugars. In addition, drought stress induced oxidative stress, which is evidenced by the higher production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) including hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), superoxide ion (O2−), hydroxyl ion (OH−), and malondialdehyde (MDA). The current study revealed that stress-induced oxidative injury is not a linear path, since the excessive production of lipid peroxidation led to the accumulation of methylglyoxal (MG), a member of reactive carbonyl species (RCS), which ultimately caused cell injury. As a consequence of oxidative-stress induction, the ascorbate–glutathione (AsA–GSH) pathway, followed by a series of reactions, was activated by the plants to reduce ROS-induced oxidative damage. Furthermore, biochar considerably improved plant growth and development by mediating metabolites and soil physio-chemical status.
