Potential impacts of chitosan on growth, yield, endogenous phytohormones, and antioxidants of wheat plant grown under sandy soil conditions

H.M.S. El-Bassiouny¹, M.M.S. Abdallah¹, N.M. Al-Ashkar¹ and B.A. Bakry²

¹Botany Department, Agricultural and Biological Research Institute, National Research Centre, 33 El Bohouth Street P.O. 12622. Dokki, Giza, Egypt
²Field Crops Research Department, Agricultural and Biological Research Institute, National Research Centre, 33 El Bohouth Street P.O. 12622. Dokki, Giza, Egypt
Corresponding author: maha_eg1908@yahoo.fr

Abstract:

A field experiment was carried out in sandy soil, during two winter successive seasons to study the impacts of different concentrations of chitosan (50, 100 & 150 mg L^-1) on several growth parameters and biochemical changes as well as quantitative and qualitative grain yield. Foliar treatment of chitosan significantly increased the growth parameters concurrently with an increment in the photosynthetic pigments, total soluble sugar, proline, free amino acid total carbohydrates, antioxidant activities, phenol, flavonoids, and some minerals nutrition of wheat plant. Wheat plants treated with chitosan at different concentrations significantly increased different endogenous phytohormones auxins (IAA), abscisic acid (ABA), gibberellins (GAs), and cytokinins (Cyt), as compared with the untreated plants. Moreover, chitosan concentrations induced significantly increments in grains yield, nutritive values, carbohydrates %, proteins %, antioxidant compounds and macronutrients of the grain yield. Cultivation of wheat plants under sandy soil conditions and treated with foliar application of 100 mg^-1 chitosan gave the higher values of the grain yield as well as the nutritional values contents.

Key words:

The effectiveness of biopreparations in soft wheat cultivation and the quality assessment of the grain by the digital x-ray imaging

L.E. Kolesnikov¹*, I.I. Novikova², E.V. Popova², N.S. Priyatkin³, E.V. Zuev⁴, Yu.R. Kolesnikova⁴ and M.D. Solodyannikov¹

¹Saint-Petersburg State Agrarian University, Faculty of Agrotechnologies, Soil science and Ecology, Department of Plant Protection and Quarantine, Petersburgskoe Shosse (highway), 2, RU196601 St-Petersburg – Pushkin, Russia
²All-Russian Institute of Plant Protection (VIZR), Laboratory of microbiological plant protection, shosse Podbel’skogo highway, 3, RU196608 Saint Petersburg-Pushkin, Russia
³Agrophysical Research Institute (ARI), plant biophysics division, Grazhdanskiy ave. 14, RU195220 St-Petersburg, Russia
⁴Federal Research Center N.I. Vavilov All-Russian Institute of Plant Genetic Resources (VIR), genetic resource of wheat department, plant introduction department, Bolshaya Morskaya street, 42–44, RU190000 St–Petersburg, Russia
*Correspondence: kleon9@yandex.ru

Abstract:

The main trend of modern crop production is the expansion of the use of plant protection solutions and technologies, that ensure not only effective management of the number of populations of harmful organisms, but also the production of environmentally safe agricultural products with minimal anthropogenic impact on agro-ecosystems. One of our priorities is to develop new environmentally sound polyfunctional biopreparations, that combine useful properties of microbial strains such as phytopathogen antagonists and chitosan compositions that increase disease resistance. The introscopic analysis of the seed material quality realized with the non–destructive express techniques application was used for evaluation the effectiveness of the compositions’ complex influence on plants. The research studies the effectiveness of the influence of Bacillus subtilis strains and chitosan compositions, including their combined effect, on soft wheat productivity and its damage by disease agents. Data on the quality assessment of the grain using microfocus x-ray radiography and gas-discharge visualization (electrophotography) are also provided. The complex of more than 20 structural elements of wheat productivity was analysed during the research. Assessment of the plant damage intensity according to the standard criterion – the disease development, and additional phytopathological indicators was carried out. The evaluation of the grains’ introscopic characteristics was carried out by the microfocus x-ray radiography techniques combined with the digital x-ray image analysis. It is shown that the biopreparation complexes, containing B. subtilis strains and Chitosan, have a combined biological activity manifested in the optimization of wheat plants’ physiological state, increasing productivity, diseases resistance.

Key words:

Bacillus subtilis, biopreparations, Chitosan, microfocus x-ray radiography, polyfunctional complex, soft wheat, wheat diseases, yield structure