MITIGATION OF ADVERSE EFFECTS OF WATER DEFICIENCY IN WHEAT WITH SODIUM NITROPRUSSIDE (SNP)

Abstract

A pot experiment was conducted in the field laboratory of Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, during rabi season, November 2015 to March 2016 to assess the role of sodium nitroprusside (SNP) as nitric oxide (NO) donor on mitigation of the adverse effects of water deficiency in wheat. In this experiment, the treatments consisted of four different stages of wheat plant when water deficiency condition were made viz. D0 = control, Dc= water deficiency provided at crown root initiation stage, Db= water deficiency provided at booting stage, Da= water deficiency provided at after anthesis stage and three different concentrations of SNP viz. S0= 0 mM, S1= 0.1 mM and S2= 0.2 mM of SNP. The experiment was laid out in two factors Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with four replications. The total treatment combinations were 12 (4x3). The morphology, yield contributing characters and yield of wheat were significantly affected by water deficiency at different stages including crown root initiation, booting and after anthesis stage. The lowest value of number of leaves plant-1, tillers plant-1 and effective tillers plant-1 were found from water deficiency at crown root initiation stage. Besides, the maximum reduction of plant height, spike length, number of spikelets spike-1, number of grains spike-1, grain yield were found from water deficiency at booting stage while the lowest 100 grains weight was found from water deficiency at after anthesis stage and indicates that booting stage is very sensitive to water deficiency. Exogenous foliar application of SNP significantly improved the morphology, yield contributing characters and yield of wheat. The SNP increased plant height, number of leaves plant-1, tillers plant-1, effective tillers plant-1, spike length, spikelets spike-1, grains spike-1, 100 grains weight and grain yield of wheat at both water deficit and non-deficit conditions. The interaction between water deficiency at different stages in wheat and SNP influenced the morphological and yield contributing characters and grain yield of wheat. The highest grain yield (12.77 g pot-1) was recorded from D0S1 (No water deficiency + 0.1 mM SNP) which was statistically identical with D0S2 (No water deficiency + 0.2 mM SNP) treatment combination. The SNP (0.1 mM) increased grain yield from 5.60 to 6.96 g pot-1, 8.65 to 9.79 g pot-1 and 10.80 to 11.10 g pot-1 under water deficiency at booting, after anthesis and crown root initiation stage, respectively. Therefore, this experimental results suggest that exogenous foliar application of SNP increased grain yield by mitigating the adverse effect of water deficiency in wheat at crown root initiation, booting and after anthesis stages.