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. 2024 Jul 10;14(1):15985.
doi: 10.1038/s41598-024-66506-y.

Mitigating drought-induced oxidative stress in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) through foliar application of sulfhydryl thiourea

Nazia Ishfaq  1 , Ejaz Ahmad Waraich  2 , Muhammad Ahmad  1 , Saddam Hussain  1 , Usman Zulfiqar  3 , Kaleem Ul Din  4 , Arslan Haider  4 , Jean Wan Hong Yong  5 , Syed Muhammad Hassan Askri  6 , Hayssam M Ali  7
Affiliations

Mitigating drought-induced oxidative stress in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) through foliar application of sulfhydryl thiourea

Nazia Ishfaq et al. Sci Rep. .

Abstract

Drought stress is a major abiotic stress affecting the performance of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). The current study evaluated the effects of drought on wheat phenology, physiology, and biochemistry; and assessed the effectiveness of foliar-applied sulfhydryl thiourea to mitigate drought-induced oxidative stress. The treatments were: wheat varieties; V1 = Punjab-2011, V2 = Galaxy-2013, V3 = Ujala-2016, and V4 = Anaaj-2017, drought stress; D1 = control (80% field capacity [FC]) and D2 = drought stress (40% FC), at the reproductive stage, and sulfhydryl thiourea (S) applications; S0 = control-no thiourea and S1 = foliar thiourea application @ 500 mg L-1. Results of this study indicated that growth parameters, including height, dry weight, leaf area index (LAI), leaf area duration (LAD), crop growth rate (CGR), net assimilation rate (NAR) were decreased under drought stress-40% FC, as compared to control-80% FC. Drought stress reduced the photosynthetic efficiency, water potential, transpiration rates, stomatal conductances, and relative water contents by 18, 17, 26, 29, and 55% in wheat varieties as compared to control. In addition, foliar chlorophyll a, and b contents were also lowered under drought stress in all wheat varieties due to an increase in malondialdehyde and electrolyte leakage. Interestingly, thiourea applications restored wheat growth and yield attributes by improving the production and activities of proline, antioxidants, and osmolytes under normal and drought stress as compared to control. Thiourea applications improved the osmolyte defense in wheat varieties as peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, catalase, proline, glycine betaine, and total phenolic were increased by 13, 20, 12, 17, 23, and 52%; while reducing the electrolyte leakage and malondialdehyde content by 49 and 32% as compared to control. Among the wheat varieties, Anaaj-2017 showed better resilience towards drought stress and also gave better response towards thiourea application based on morpho-physiological, biochemical, and yield attributes as compared to Punjab-2011, Galaxy-2013, and Ujala-2016. Eta-square values showed that thiourea applications, drought stress, and wheat varieties were key contributors to most of the parameters measured. In conclusion, the sulfhydryl thiourea applications improved the morpho-physiology, biochemical, and yield attributes of wheat varieties, thereby mitigating the adverse effects of drought. Moving forward, detailed studies pertaining to the molecular and genetic mechanisms under sulfhydryl thiourea-induced drought stress tolerance are warranted.

Keywords: Antioxidants activities; Drought stress; Malondialdehyde production; Osmolytes.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Applications of sulfhydryl thiourea (S0 = control-no TU and S1 = foliar TU application (500 mg L−1) on plant height in wheat varieties (V1 = Punjab-2011, V2 = Galaxy-2013, V3 = Ujala-2016, and V4 = Anaaj-2017) under drought stress (D1 = control-80% field capacity (FC) and D2 = water stress-40% FC).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Effects of sulfhydryl thiourea (S0 = control-no TU and S1 = foliar TU application (500 mg L−1) on dry weight in wheat varieties (V1 = Punjab-2011, V2 = Galaxy-2013, V3 = Ujala-2016, and V4 = Anaaj-2017) under drought stress (D1 = control-80% field capacity (FC) and D2 = water stress-40% FC).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Effects of sulfhydryl thiourea (S0 = control-no TU and S1 = foliar TU application (500 mg L−1) on leaf area duration in wheat varieties (V1 = Punjab-2011, V2 = Galaxy-2013, V3 = Ujala-2016, and V4 = Anaaj-2017) under drought stress (D1 = control-80% field capacity (FC) and D2 = water stress-40% FC).
Figure 4
Figure 4
Effects of sulfhydryl thiourea (S0 = control-no TU and S1 = foliar TU application (500 mg L−1) on leaf area index in wheat varieties (V1 = Punjab-2011, V2 = Galaxy-2013, V3 = Ujala-2016, and V4 = Anaaj-2017) under drought stress (D1 = control-80% field capacity (FC) and D2 = water stress-40% FC).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Effects of sulfhydryl thiourea (S0 = control-no TU and S1 = foliar TU application (500 mg L−1) on net assimilation rates in wheat varieties (V1 = Punjab-2011, V2 = Galaxy-2013, V3 = Ujala-2016, and V4 = Anaaj-2017) under drought stress (D1 = control-80% field capacity (FC) and D2 = water stress-40% FC).
Figure 6
Figure 6
Effects of sulfhydryl thiourea (S0 = control-no TU and S1 = foliar TU application (500 mg L−1) on crop growth rate in wheat varieties (V1 = Punjab-2011, V2 = Galaxy-2013, V3 = Ujala-2016, and V4 = Anaaj-2017) under drought stress (D1 = control-80% field capacity (FC) and D2 = water stress-40% FC).
Figure 7
Figure 7
Correlation matrix for the effects of thiourea applications (S1 = control-no thiourea and S2 = foliar thiourea application @ 500 mg L−1 at 30 days after sowing) on plant phenological, morphological, physiological, and biochemical attributes on wheat varieties (V1 = Punjab-2011, V2 = Galaxy-2013, V3 = Ujala-2016, and V4 = Anaaj-2017) under drought stress (D1 = control-80% field capacity (FC) and D2 = water stress-40% FC). Plant height (PH), dry weight (DW), leaf area index (LAI), crop growth rate (CGR), net assimilation rate (NAR), water potential (WP), relative water content (RWC), photosynthetic rate (PN), transpiration rate (TR), stomatal conductance (GS), number of productive tillers (NPT), number of spikelets per spike (NSS), number of grains per spike (NGS), thousand grain weight (TGW), biological yield (BY), economical yield (EY), and harvest index (HI), proline (Pr), glycine betaine (GB), total phenolics (TPH), malondialdehyde (MDA), electrolyte leakage (EL), SUPEROXIDE DISMUTASE (SOD), peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT).
Figure 8
Figure 8
Correlation matrix for the effect of thiourea applications (S1 = control-no thiourea and S2 = foliar thiourea application @ 500 mg L−1 at 30 days after sowing) on plant phenological, morphological, physiological, and biochemical attributes on wheat varieties (V1 = Punjab-2011, V2 = Galaxy-2013, V3 = Ujala-2016, and V4 = Anaaj-2017) under drought stress (D1 = control-80% field capacity (FC) and D2 = water stress-40% FC). Plant height (PH), dry weight (DW), leaf area index (LAI), crop growth rate (CGR), net assimilation rate (NAR), water potential (WP), relative water content (RWC), photosynthetic rate (PN), transpiration rate (TR), stomatal conductance (GS), number of productive tillers (NPT), number of spikelets per spike (NSS), number of grains per spike (NGS), thousand grain weight (TGW), biological yield (BY), economical yield (EY), and harvest index (HI), proline (Pr), glycine betaine (GB), total phenolics (TPH), malondialdehyde (MDA), electrolyte leakage (EL), SUPEROXIDE DISMUTASE (SOD), peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT).
Figure 9
Figure 9
The clustered heatmap of a number of physiological, biochemical, and quality attributes, including Plant height (PH), dry weight (DW), leaf area index (LAI), crop growth rate (CGR), net assimilation rate (NAR), water potential (WP), relative water content (RWC), photosynthetic rate (PN), transpiration rate (TR), stomatal conductance (GS), number of productive tillers (NPT), number of spikelets per spike (NSS), number of wheat grains per spike (NGS), thousand grain weight (TGW), biological yield (BY), economical yield (EY), and harvest index (HI), proline (Pr), glycine betaine (GB), total phenolics (TPH), malondialdehyde (MDA), electrolyte leakage (EL), SUPEROXIDE DISMUTASE (SOD), peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT) of wheat varieties grown under drought stress.
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