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. 2023 Jan 23:11:e14673.
doi: 10.7717/peerj.14673. eCollection 2023.

Effects of prohexadione calcium spraying during the booting stage on panicle traits, yield, and related physiological characteristics of rice under salt stress

XiXin Huang  1 , Dianfeng Zheng  1   2   3 , Naijie Feng  1   2   3 , Anqi Huang  1 , Rongjun Zhang  1 , Fengyan Meng  1 , Yin Jie  1 , Baomin Mu  1 , Dewei Mu  1 , Hang Zhou  1
Affiliations

Effects of prohexadione calcium spraying during the booting stage on panicle traits, yield, and related physiological characteristics of rice under salt stress

XiXin Huang et al. PeerJ. .

Abstract

Prohexadione calcium (Pro-Ca), as a growth retardant, can effectively alleviate the damage of salt stress to plants. In order to explore the effects of NaCl stress on the physiological characteristics and panicle traits of rice plants as well as the alleviating effect of Pro-Ca at the booting stage, we performed pot experiments on two rice cultivars: conventional rice 'Huanghuazhan' and hybrid rice 'Xiangliangyou900'. Rice plants were treated with 0.3% NaCl 48 hours after Pro-Ca (100 mg L-1) treatment to study the effects of Pro-Ca on the physiological characteristics of the leaves and panicles, as well as the panicle and yield traits of rice under salt stress. Our analysis indicated that NaCl treatment inhibited the morphological growth parameters and photosynthetic efficiency, destroyed the antioxidant defense systems of leaves and panicles, increased soluble protein and proline in both rice cultivars. Foliar application of Pro-Ca significantly increased the leaf area, uppermost internode length, panicle length, panicle weight, number of primary branches, number of grains per panicle, seed setting rate and yield under salt stress. Pro-Ca application significantly affected chlorophyll content, net photosynthetic rate (Pn), stomatal conductance (Gs), transpiration rate (Tr), and apparent mesophyll conductance (AMC) in NaCl-treated rice cultivars compared with NaCl treatment alone. Moreover, Pro-Ca also increased ascorbic acid (AsA) content, enhanced superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT), and ascorbate peroxidase (APX) activity, and further increased the accumulation of soluble protein and proline in leaves and panicles. These results illustrated that foliar application of Pro-Ca at the booting stage could alleviate the damage caused by NaCl stress by regulating the physiological and metabolic processes of rice plants, thereby enhancing the stress resistance of the plants, increasing total rice yield in salt stress conditions.

Keywords: Booting stage; Panicle traits; Prohexadione calcium; Rice; Salt stress.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare there are no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1. Effects of Pro-Ca spraying at booting stage on SPAD and photosynthetic parameters of rice under salt stress.
(A) SPAD. (B) Net photosynthetic rate (Pn). (C) Stomatal conductance (Gs). (D) Intracellular CO2 concentrations (Ci). (E) Transpiration rate (Tr). (F) Apparent mesophyll conductance (AMC). Notes: HHZ: Huanghuazhan rice cultivars. XLY900: Xiangliangyou900 rice cultivars. Different lowercase letters indicate that the mean values of the replicates were significantly different among the treatments (p < 0.05).
Figure 2
Figure 2. Effects of spraying Pro-Ca at the booting stage on soluble protein and proline content of rice leaves and panicles under salt stress.
Changes in the soluble protein and proline content of leaves (A, C) and panicles (B, D) of Huanghuazhan (HHZ) and Xiangliangyou900 (XLY900) rice cultivars in each of the four treatment groups: distilled water (control, CK); 0.3% NaCl (NaCl); Pro-Ca + 0.3% NaCl (Pro-Ca + NaCl); and Pro-Ca (Pro-Ca). Different lowercase letters indicate that the mean values of the replicates were significantly different among the treatments (p < 0.05).
Figure 3
Figure 3. Effects of Pro-Ca spraying at the booting stage on the activities of antioxidant enzymes of rice leaves and panicles under salt stress.
Changes in the activity levels of SOD, POD, CAT, APX in the leaves (A, C, E, G) and panicles (B, D, F, H) of Huanghuazhan (HHZ) and Xiangliangyou900 (XLY900) rice cultivars in each of the four treatment groups: distilled water (control, CK); 0.3% NaCl (NaCl); Pro-Ca + 0.3% NaCl (Pro-Ca + NaCl); and Pro-Ca (Pro-Ca). Different lowercase letters indicate that the mean values of the replicates were significantly different among the treatments (p < 0.05).
Figure 4
Figure 4. Effects of Pro-Ca spraying at the booting stage on AsA content and GSH content of rice leaves and panicles under salt stress.
Changes in the AsA content (A, B) and GSH content (C, D) of the leaves and panicles of Huanghuazhan (HHZ) and Xiangliangyou900 (XLY900) rice cultivars in each of the four treatment groups: distilled water (control, CK); 0.3% NaCl (NaCl); Pro-Ca + 0.3% NaCl (Pro-Ca + NaCl); and Pro-Ca (Pro-Ca). Different lowercase letters indicate that the mean values of the replicates were significantly different among the treatments (p < 0.05).
Figure 5
Figure 5. The images of Huanghuazhan (HHZ) and Xiangliangyou900 (XLY900) rice cultivars panicle traits under salt stress by spraying Pro-Ca at the booting stage.
The left half is HHZ (A), and the right half is XLY900 (B). The two rice cultivars from left to right were treated as follows: distilled water (control, CK); 0.3% NaCl (NaCl); Pro-Ca + 0.3% NaCl (Pro-Ca + NaCl); Pro-Ca (Pro-Ca).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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