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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Microbe and Virus Interactions with Plants
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1441719
This article is part of the Research Topic Mineral Solubilizing Microorganisms (MSM) and Their Applications in Nutrient Bioavailability, Bioweathering and Bioremediation, Vol III View all 4 articles

Cultivating Resilience in Wheat: Mitigating Arsenic Toxicity with Seaweed Extract and Azospirillum brasilense

Provisionally accepted
  • 1 Khwaja Fareed University of Engineering and Information Technology (KFUEIT), Rahim Yar Khan, Punjab, Pakistan
  • 2 Hunan University, Changsha, Hunan Province, China
  • 3 China Agricultural University, Beijing, Beijing Municipality, China
  • 4 Institute of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture & Environmental Science, Muhammad Nawaz Shareef University of Agriculture, Multan, Punjab, Pakistan
  • 5 Institute of Advanced Agricultural Sciences, Peking University, Weifang, Shandong, China
  • 6 Shandong Agricultural University, Taian, Shandong Province, China
  • 7 King Saud University, Riyadh, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
  • 8 Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, Shanghai Municipality, China
  • 9 University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Arsenic (As) toxicity is a serious hazard to agricultural land due to growing industrialization, which has a negative effect on wheat crop yield. Using seaweed extract and Azospirillum brasilense has become known as an appropriate approach for yield improvement under stress conditions in order to address this problem. The combined application of A. brasilense and seaweed extract in wheat crops under As toxicity has not been fully explored. The effectiveness of combining A. brasilense and seaweed extract in reducing As toxicity in wheat production was examined in this study through a 2-year pot experiment with nine treatments The treatments include a control with no additives and two As concentrations, 50 μM and 70 μM. At 50 μM and 70 μM, As is tested alone, with seaweed extract, with A. brasilense, and with both. Significant results were achieved in reducing the toxicity of As in wheat crop in the experiment. Arsenic at 70 μM was more harmful than at 50 μM. A. brasilense and seaweed extract applied together proven to be more effective, improving crop growth rates, chlorophyll levels, and stomatal conductance. The combined application was resulted in a notable decrease in the concentration of As in wheat plants. This was concluded that the application of A. brasilense and seaweed extract not only improve wheat growth but can also improve soil parameters under As toxicity conditions by increasing organic matter contents, boosting nutrients availability and increasing the production of antioxidant enzymes.

    Keywords: arsenic toxicity, Azospirillum brasilense, seaweed extract, soil organic matter, Wheat growth

    Received: 03 Jun 2024; Accepted: 30 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Zaheer, Aijaz, Hameed, Buttar, Rehman, Riaz, Ahmad, Manzoor and Asaduzzaman. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Muhammad Saqlain Zaheer, Khwaja Fareed University of Engineering and Information Technology (KFUEIT), Rahim Yar Khan, Punjab, Pakistan
    Muhammad Asaduzzaman, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

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