Smoke produced from plants waste material elicits growth of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) by improving morphological, physiological and biochemical activity

Muhammad Iqbal; Saira Asif; Noshin Ilyas; Fayyaz-Ul-Hassan; Naveed Iqbal Raja; Mubashir Hussain; Muhammad Ejaz; Hafiza Saira

doi:10.1016/j.btre.2017.12.001

Smoke produced from plants waste material elicits growth of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) by improving morphological, physiological and biochemical activity

Biotechnol Rep (Amst). 2017 Dec 13:17:35-44. doi: 10.1016/j.btre.2017.12.001. eCollection 2018 Mar.

Authors

Muhammad Iqbal¹, Saira Asif¹, Noshin Ilyas¹, Fayyaz-Ul-Hassan², Naveed Iqbal Raja¹, Mubashir Hussain¹, Muhammad Ejaz¹, Hafiza Saira¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Botany, PMAS- Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
² Department of Agronomy, PMAS- Arid Agriculture University, Rawalpindi, Pakistan.

Abstract

The experimental work presented in this study was carried out with the hypothesis that plant derived smoke enhanced the morphological, physiological and biochemical attributes of a cereal crop, wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Furthermore, this study supported the hypothesis that plant derived smoke acts as vegetative growth promoter, inexpensive, rapid and most appropriate eco-friendly bio-fertilizer for sustainable agriculture. Plant derived smoke was generated by burning of plant material (leaf, straws etc) in a specially designed furnace, and seeds were treated with this smoke for different time duration. Four level of plant derived smoke (1 h, 2 h, 3 h and 4 h) along with control were tested on four wheat cultivars in CRD repeated pot experiment. The smoke-related treatments modified number of morphological, physiological and biochemical features of wheat. Compared with the control, aerosol smoke treatment of the seeds significantly improved root length (2.6%), shoot length (7.7%), RFW (0.04%), SFW (0.7%), SDW (0.1%) and leaf area (63.9%). All the smoke-related treatments significantly promoted RWC (17.3%), water potential (1.5%), osmotic potential (1.4%) and MSI (14.6%) whereas a pronounced increase in chlorophyll a (24.9%), chlorophyll b (21.7%) and total chlorophyll contents (15.5%) were recorded in response to aerosol-smoke treatments. Plant derived smoke exposure applied for short time i.e. 1 h & 2 h induced significant results as compared to prolonged PDS exposure (3 h and 4 h). The best results were observed in Pak-13 and Glaxy-13 wheat cultivars. These findings indicated that the plant-derived smoke treatment has a great potential to improve morphological, physiological and biochemical features of wheat crop.

Keywords: Chlorophyll contents; Compatible solutes; Leaf area; MSI, membrane stability index; PDS, plant derived smoke; Plant derived smoke; RFW, root fresh weight; RWC, relative water contents; Relative water contents; Root shoot length; SDW, shoot dry weight; SFW, shoot fresh weight; SL, strigolactone.