The effects of silicon pre – treatment on physiological and biochemical responses of maize under water deficit

Abstract

The present study was conducted to investigate the effects of silicon (Si) pre – treatment under different irrigation regimes on growth, gas – exchange properties and physiological features of maize in the “Selcuk University, Agriculture Faculty, Field Crops Department, Research and Practicing Station of Prof. Dr. Abdulkadir AKÇIN, Konya, Türkiye” during 2019 and 2020 growing seasons. Irrigations (50%, 75%, 100% of total evaporation from Class A Evaporation Pan), genotypes (purple and white coloured corns) and treatments (control, 1.5mM Si) were the factors of the trial. This study found out that water restriction (I1 and I2) adversely affected maize growth attributes (plant height, leaf number, leaf area) and photosynthetic efficiency (A). However, Si priming significantly improved drought tolerance, largely mitigating these negative effects. Plant height and proline concentration of the silicon – primed purple corn was higher than control under I1 during both years of the experiment. Silicon priming increased photosynthesis rate (46.20%), stomatal conductance (35.47%) and total anthocyanin content (12.80%) of the purple corn during 2019 whilst it increased total anthocyanin content (10.10%) of the white corn during 2020. Besides the healing effects of Si pre – soaking under I1, it had positive impacts on many features under I2 and I3. According to the results of the experiment it may be concluded that Si pre – treatment may be an alternative strategy to increase performance and resilience of maize under water restricted conditions.