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Salicylic Acid Increases Photosynthesis of Drought Grown Mustard Plants Effectively with Sufficient-N via Regulation of Ethylene, Abscisic Acid, and Nitrogen-Use Efficiency

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Abstract

An essential approach to reduce drought in plants is to maximize the use of most limited available resources. The increase in water-use efficiency (WUE) is important to maximally utilize the available water to increase photosynthesis and growth of plants under water-deficit stress. Both WUE and photosynthetic nitrogen-use efficiency (PNUE), as the indices of resource-use efficiency were studied in mustard (Brassica juncea L.) plants grown under limited water conditions with low-N (100 mg N kg−1 soil) and sufficient-N (200 mg N kg−1 soil) and sprayed with 0 or 0.5 mM salicylic acid (SA). Application of SA increased water potential, osmotic potential, WUE, and the incorporation of soil N into photosynthetic machinery by enhancing PNUE. It also increased photosynthesis of plants maximally by increasing stomatal conductance and intercellular CO2 concentration under water-deficit stress. This increase was greater in the presence of sufficient-N where 0.5 mM SA maximally enhanced the N metabolism, redox ratio that mitigated the oxidative stress. The application of SA on plants supplemented with N reduced ethylene and abscisic acid (ABA) synthesis. It could be inferred that SA enhanced N utilization through increase in NUE when it is sufficiently available, increasing the GSH content to maintain redox ratio and inhibit ABA-mediated stomatal closure to enhance the resource utilization and photosynthesis. SA also enhanced glucose utilization which prevented glucose-mediated photosynthetic repression under stress. Thus, SA application may impart a potential management tool for increasing photosynthetic NUE, WUE, and photosynthesis under drought.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Botany, Jamia Hamdard, New Delhi, 110062, India

    Noushina Iqbal & M. Iqbal R. Khan

  2. Plant Physiology and Biochemistry Laboratory, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, 202002, India

    Mehar Fatma, Harsha Gautam, Zebus Sehar, Faisal Rasheed & Nafees A. Khan

  3. Department of European and Mediterranean Cultures: Architecture, Environment, Cultural Heritage (DiCEM), University of Basilicata, 75100, Matera, Italy

    Adriano Sofo

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  1. Noushina Iqbal
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  2. Mehar Fatma
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  3. Harsha Gautam
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  4. Zebus Sehar
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  6. M. Iqbal R. Khan
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Contributions

Conceptualization: NI and NAK; Investigation and data curation: MF, NI, HG, and ZS; Physiological analysis: NI, ZS, FR, and MIRK; Original draft preparation: FR, MF, and NI; Editing and content improvement: NI, AS, and NAK; Supervision: NAK. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Noushina Iqbal or Nafees A. Khan.

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Iqbal, N., Fatma, M., Gautam, H. et al. Salicylic Acid Increases Photosynthesis of Drought Grown Mustard Plants Effectively with Sufficient-N via Regulation of Ethylene, Abscisic Acid, and Nitrogen-Use Efficiency. J Plant Growth Regul 41, 1966–1977 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00344-021-10565-2

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