In a controlled environment experiment, we studied how physiological changes in leaves during the vegetative phase regulate final grain yield of wheat crops in salt-affected soils. We also hypothesized that amendments such as biochar (SB) and selenium-chitosan nanoparticles (Se-NPs) can protect wheat plants from salt injury. 20-day-old wheat plants were submitted to 4-week salt stress (3000 ppm NaCl). Soybean straw biochar was mixed with soil media at planting and Se-NPs (30 ppm) was sprayed 5 days after the first salt stress treatment. At the end of 4-week Se-NPs treatment, one set of plants was harvested for studying leaf level physiological changes. The salt-stressed plants accumulated significantly high leaf Na⁺(~ 13-fold increase), which trigged oxidative and osmotic damage. This salt-induced cellular injury was evident from significantly high levels of lipid membrane peroxidation and inhibited photosynthesis. Our study suggested that leaf physiological impairment in wheat plants was translated into poor biomass production and grain yield loss at crop maturity. Compared with control, salt-stressed plants produced 43% lesser biomass during vegetative phase, and 62% lesser grain yield at maturity. Amendments such as SB and Se-NPs protected the plants from salt-induced cellular injury by restricting Na⁺transport toward leaf tissues. Plants treated with NaCl + SB + Se-NPs accumulated 50% less Na⁺concentrations in leaves compared with NaCl-treated plants. Our study also suggested that SB and Se-NPs can restore ionic homeostasis and carbon assimilation in salt-stressed wheat by upregulating key transporter genes in leaves.

Myo-inositol has gained a central position in plants due to its vital role in physiology and biochemistry. This experimental work assessed the effects of salinity stress and foliar application of myo-inositol (MYO) on growth, chlorophyll content, photosynthesis, antioxidant system, osmolyte accumulation, and gene expression in quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa L. var. Giza1). Our results show that salinity stress significantly decreased growth parameters such as plant height, fresh and dry weights of shoot and root, leaf area, number of leaves, chlorophyll content, net photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, transpiration, and Fv/Fm, with a more pronounced effect at higher NaCl concentrations. However, the exogenous application of MYO increased the growth and photosynthesis traits and alleviated the stress to a considerable extent. Salinity also significantly reduced the water potential and water use efficiency in plants under saline regime; however, exogenous application of myo-inositol coped with this issue. MYO significantly reduced the accumulation of hydrogen peroxide, superoxide, reduced lipid peroxidation, and electrolyte leakage concomitant with an increase in the membrane stability index. Exogenous application of MYO up-regulated the antioxidant enzymes’ activities and the contents of ascorbate and glutathione, contributing to membrane stability and reduced oxidative damage. The damaging effects of salinity stress on quinoa were further mitigated by increased accumulation of osmolytes such as proline, glycine betaine, free amino acids, and soluble sugars in MYO-treated seedlings. The expression pattern of OSM34, NHX1, SOS1A, SOS1B, BADH, TIP2, NSY, and SDR genes increased significantly due to the application of MYO under both stressed and non-stressed conditions. Our results support the conclusion that exogenous MYO alleviates salt stress by involving antioxidants, enhancing plant growth attributes and membrane stability, and reducing oxidative damage to plants.

Phenotypic plasticity is frequently highlighted as a key factor in plant invasiveness, as it enables invasive species to adapt to diverse, complicated habitats. Trianthema portulacastrum is one of the most common aggressive species that threaten different crops around the world. Phenotypic plasticity in T. portulacastrum was investigated by comparing variation in germination, vegetative macromorphology, photosynthetic pigments, stomatal complexes, and seed micromorphological traits of 35 samples collected from 35 different localities. One-way cluster analysis and principal component analysis (PCA) were used to classify samples into homogeneous groups based on the measured traits. Pairwise statistical comparisons were conducted between the three resulting groups. The phenotypic plasticity index (PI) was calculated and compared among different groups of characters. Results showed that photosynthetic pigments and macromorphological characteristics had the highest PI, followed by seed micromorphology, and then stomatal complex traits, while germination parameters showed the lowest PI. We propose that soil moisture, salinity, and temperature are the most determinative and explanative variables of the variation between the three classified groups. We strongly believe that the phenotypic plasticity of T. portulacastrum will support species abundance and spread even under expected changes in climatic conditions, in contrast to the vulnerable traditional crops.

Minerals are the fundamental source of nutrients for plant functions such as photosynthesis, ATP currency, cellular respiration, metabolic activities, defense mechanisms, and tolerance to biotic and abiotic stressors. Minerals are the most significant component of plant nutrition and applying these minerals supplements can increase fruit output. The study’s main aim was to make agricultural farming easier by foliar applying newly created nutrients like Lebosol-calcium and Magnesium. The four treatments: To (Control), T1 (Lebosol-Mg-Plus, 3 ml/L), T2 (Lebosol-Ca-Forte, 3 ml/L), and T3 (Lebosol-Mg-Plus and Lebosol-Ca-Forte, 3 ml/L) was applied as foliar spray to the seedlings of tomato. It was found that T3 substantially enhanced tomato’s morphological features and yield. The treatment T3 significantly increased total soluble protein, chlorophyll content, and antioxidant enzyme activity. Furthermore, the foliar application of T3 considerably improved phenolic and ascorbic acid contents. The general anatomical features of the leaf, stem, and roots of tomato were qualitatively affected by the treatments. Application of Lebosol-Ca provided the highest total thickness of lamina, number of vessel elements, total phloem area, chlorenchyma layer, total area of vessel elements, xylem ratio, and increased palisade layer thickness, vessel diameter. Furthermore, T3 treatment showed a diverse impact on the internal structure of tomato organs, with palisade and spongy parenchyma growing to maximum values and vessel diameters expanding. T3 had also posed remarkable alterations in morpho-physiological, biochemical, and anatomical aspects in tested plants.

Rice is a major food crop that has a critical role in ensuring food security for the global population. However, major abiotic stresses such as salinity and alkalinity pose a major threat to rice farming worldwide. Compared with salinity stress, there is limited progress in elucidating the molecular mechanisms associated with alkalinity tolerance in rice. Since both stresses coexist in coastal and arid regions, unraveling of the underlying molecular mechanisms will help the breeding of high-yielding stress-tolerant rice varieties for these areas. This study examined the morpho-physiological and molecular response of four rice genotypes to both salinity and alkalinity stresses. Geumgangbyeo was highly tolerant and Mermentau was the least tolerant to both stresses, while Pokkali and Bengal were tolerant to only salinity and alkalinity stress, respectively. A set of salinity and alkalinity stress-responsive genes showed differential expression in the above rice genotypes under both stress conditions. The expression patterns were consistent with the observed morphological responses in these rice genotypes, suggesting the potential role of these genes in regulating tolerance to these abiotic stresses. Overall, this study suggested that divergence in response to alkalinity and salinity stresses among rice genotypes could be due to different molecular mechanisms conferring tolerance to each stress. In addition to providing a basis for further investigations into differentiating the molecular bases underlying tolerance, this study also emphasizes the possibilities of developing climate-resilient rice varieties using donors that are tolerant to both abiotic stresses.

AN EXPERIMENT was conducted to assess the responses of Carum carvi to lead stress and using ascorbic acid and α tochopherol as antioxidants. In this experiment, plants were grown in the nutrient medium with different levels of lead (0, 50, 100,200,500 and 1000 mM) in the form of lead nitrate Pb(NO3)2.Ascorbic acid or α tochopherol level (each 50 ppm) was used as seed presoaked for 8 h.The interactiveeffects were recorded on plant biomass, biosynthesis of photosynthetic pigments, proline, oil contents and flavonidsin Carum carvi plant. From our present results, itcouldbe concluded thatseed presoaked applications of ascorbic acid orα tocopherol could play a role to alleviate the harmful effect of lead stress on some metabolic and physiological processes of Carum carvi that reflected in, increasing fresh-dry matter of different organs, inducing a significant stimulatory effect of carotenoid contents, increasing oil,proline and flavonoid contents.