Kaolin and Jasmonic acid improved cotton productivity under water stress conditions

Muhammad Nazim; Muqarrab Ali; Khurram Shahzad; Fiaz Ahmad; Fahim Nawaz; Muhammad Amin; Shazia Anjum; Omaima Nasif; Sulaiman Ali Alharbi; Shah Fahad; Subhan Danish; Rahul Datta

doi:10.1016/j.sjbs.2021.07.043

Kaolin and Jasmonic acid improved cotton productivity under water stress conditions

Saudi J Biol Sci. 2021 Nov;28(11):6606-6614. doi: 10.1016/j.sjbs.2021.07.043. Epub 2021 Jul 16.

Authors

Muhammad Nazim¹, Muqarrab Ali¹, Khurram Shahzad², Fiaz Ahmad³, Fahim Nawaz¹, Muhammad Amin⁴, Shazia Anjum⁵, Omaima Nasif⁶, Sulaiman Ali Alharbi⁷, Shah Fahad⁸, Subhan Danish⁹, Rahul Datta¹⁰

Affiliations

¹ Department of Agronomy, MNS-University of Agriculture, Multan 66000, Pakistan.
² Department of Soil Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Lasbella University of Agriculture, Water and Marine Sciences, Uthal, Balochistan 90150, Pakistan.
³ Plant Physiology/ Chemistry Section, Central Cotton Research Institute, Multan 66000, Pakistan.
⁴ Department of Horticultural Sciences, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur 63100, Pakistan.
⁵ Institute of Chemistry, The Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur 63100, Pakistan.
⁶ Department of Physiology, College of Medicine and King Khalid University Hospital, King Saud University, Medical City, P.O. Box-2925, Riyadh 11461, Saudi Arabia.
⁷ Department of Botany and Microbiology, College of Science, King Saud University, P.O. Box-2455, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
⁸ Department of Agronomy, The University of Haripur, Haripur 22620, Pakistan.
⁹ Department of Soil Science, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan 60800, Pakistan.
¹⁰ Department of Geology and Pedology, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, Mendel University in Brno, Zemedelska1, 61300 Brno, Czech Republic.

Abstract

Drought is one of the most emerging threat that causes a severe reduction in cotton plant growth and development. Being cotton is a major cash crop has great threat to prevailing drought events in Pakistan. A field experiment was conducted in Kharif season 2018 at Research Area of MNS-University of Agriculture, Multan, Pakistan to assess the role of foliar applied kaolin and jasmonic acid on vegetative growth, gas exchange and reproductive traits of cotton under normal irrigated and artificial water deficit conditions. The experiment was laid -out in a factorial randomized complete block design with split - split plot arrangement. Main plots were allocated for irrigation levels, sub-plots for two -cotton genotypes viz. NIAB - 878 and SLH - 19 while sub - sub plots for treatments of kaolin and Jasmonic acid. Water deficit stress was created by skipping irrigation at flowering for 21 days. Foliar sprays of Kaolin (5%, w/v) and Jasmonic acid (100 μM) were applied alone or in combination at 60 days after planntinon both to normal irrigated and water-stresse skip irrigation while irrigation water alone was sprayed in control plots. Both cotton genotypes responded variably to normal irrigated and skip conditions. Skipping irrigation for up to 21 days at flowering caused a significant decrease in leaf relative water content, SPAD values, net photosynthetic rate and seed cotton yield in both the genotypes. Seed cotton yield showed an overall decline of 24.7% in skip over Normal irrigated crop. The genotype NIAB - 878 produced maximum seed cotton yield of 3.304 Mg ha^-1 in normal that dropped to 2.579 Mg ha^-1 in skip, thus showing an average decline of 21.9 %. Similarly, SLH - 19 produced 2.537 Mg ha^-1 seed cotton under normal that dropped to 1.822 Mg ha^-1 in skip, showing an average decline of 28.2%. The Application of Kaolin and JA Jasmonic acid, either applied individually or in combination, improved vegetative and reproductive development of both cotton varieties in normal and skip regimes. However, combined kaolin and Jasmonic Acid application proved to be more beneficial in terms of seed cotton production and other parameters studied.

Keywords: Cotton; Gas exchange characteristics; Jasmonic acid; Kaolin; Water stress; Yield.