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Regulatory Role of Silicon on Photosynthesis, Gas-exchange and Yield Related Traits of Drought-Stressed Lentil Plants

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Abstract

Purpose

Drought is one of the most devastating abiotic constraints leading up to 60% lentil production losses. Silicon (Si) application has been shown to be a promising drought stress management strategy in many Si accumulator crops. The present study investigated whether Si can also help to mitigate drought stress in Si excluder crops like lentil.

Methods

Experiments were conducted under both controlled and field conditions with selected drought susceptible and tolerant lentil genotypes, which were subjected to drought stress at the onset of the flowering. The measurements of chlorophyll fluorescence, photosynthetic pigments, infrared thermal canopy temperature, leaf gas exchange parameters and yield traits were analysed and compared to control treatments.

Results

Silicon attenuated drought stress-mediated effects on light absorption of photosystem II (PSII) by increasing the effective quantum yield of PSII photochemistry and photosynthetic pigments. Added Si maintained the cooler canopies of stressed plants and mitigated negative effects of drought stress on gas exchange parameters. Increase in crop growth and yield treated with Si under drought stress was primarily related to higher photosynthetic activity.

Conclusions

Exogenous application of Si could be a potential on-farm and off-farm drought stress management strategy for lentil plants.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the University of Melbourne for the Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship and the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), Australia for the Grain Industry Research Scholarship (GRS-11011) given to Sajitha Biju.

Funding

The research was supported by the University of Melbourne (Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship) and the Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC), Australia (Grain Industry Research Scholarship (GRS-11011).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Agriculture and Food, Faculty of Science, The University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia

    Sajitha Biju, Sigfredo Fuentes & Dorin Gupta

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  1. Sajitha Biju
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Contributions

Sajitha Biju: Study conception, design and execution of experiments, sample preparation, methodology, data collection, data analysis, prepared the first draft, reviewed, and edited the draft, approved the final version.Sigfredo Fuentes: Study conception and experiment design, reviewed the draft and approved the final version.Dorin Gupta: Study conception and experiment design, reviewed the draft and approved the final version.

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Correspondence to Dorin Gupta.

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Biju, S., Fuentes, S. & Gupta, D. Regulatory Role of Silicon on Photosynthesis, Gas-exchange and Yield Related Traits of Drought-Stressed Lentil Plants. Silicon 15, 5981–5996 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12633-023-02492-6

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