Co-application of bio-fertilizer and salicylic acid improves growth, photosynthetic pigments and stress tolerance in wheat under drought stress.

ABSTRACT: Drought stress hampers the growth and productivity of wheat crop worldwide. Thus far, different strategies have been proposed to improve drought tolerance in wheat but the combined application of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria formulated bio-fertilizer (BF) and salicylic acid (SA) has not been thoroughly explored yet. Therefore, a pot experiment was conducted to observe the effect of SA, BF, and their combination on wheat plants under optimal and drought stress conditions. Seeds priming was done with BF (10⁷ CFU mL^-1). After 2 weeks of germination, SA (one mM) was applied as a foliar spray. Drought stress was applied by withholding water supply at three-leaf stage (30 d old plants) for the next 15 d until soil moisture dropped to 10%. Foliar application of SA in

SUBMITTER: Azmat A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7597624 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature