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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Abiotic Stress
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1396594
This article is part of the Research Topic Bio-Based Strategies for Biotic and Abiotic Stress Management in Sustainable Agriculture View all 9 articles

Enhancing maize growth and resilience to environmental stress with biochar, gibberellic acid and rhizobacteria

Provisionally accepted
Tauseef Anwar Tauseef Anwar 1*HUMA QURESHI HUMA QURESHI 2Natasha Munir Natasha Munir 1Ejaz H. Siddiqi Ejaz H. Siddiqi 3Hina Fatimah Hina Fatimah 4Wajid Zaman Wajid Zaman 5Walid Soufan Walid Soufan 6
  • 1 Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur, Pakistan
  • 2 University of Chakwal, Chakwal, Punjab, Pakistan
  • 3 University of Gujrat, Gujrat, Punjab, Pakistan
  • 4 Allama Iqbal Open University, Islamabad, Islamabad, Pakistan
  • 5 Yeungnam University, Gyeongsan, North Gyeongsang, Republic of Korea
  • 6 King Saud University, Riyadh, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

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

    Zea mays (maize) is a globally significant cereal crop with diverse applications. This study explores the impact of Cadmium (Cd) viz. 0, 6 and 12 ppm, Lead (Pb) viz. 0 and 400 ppm toxicity and drought stress (DS) on maize growth and development. Various treatments included the application of 10 ppm gibberellic acid (GA3), 0.75% biochar (BC), combined treatment of 10 ppm GA3 and 0.75% BC, application of rhizobacteria (RB) and combined treatment of 0.5% BC and RB. In the absence of Cd stress (0 Cd), germination rates were significantly enhanced by the application of 10 ppm GA3 and 0.75% BC, resulting in a 72% and 76% increase, respectively, compared to the control. Notably, combined treatment of GA3 and BC exhibited the highest enhancement with an 86% increase in germination. Under Cd stress (6 ppm Cd), both GA3 (54% increase) and BC (57% increase) individually improved germination, with combined treatment showing the largest increase (63%). DS influenced germination, with notable improvements observed with the application of 0.5% BC (50% increase) and RB (49% increase). Similarly, trends were observed in shoot and root lengths, where combined treatment of GA3 and BC resulted in the most significant improvements. The treatments positively influenced shoot and root protein, phenolics and chlorophyll contents, particularly under stress conditions. These findings highlight the potential of combined treatments, such as the application of GA3 and BC or BC with RB, in alleviating heavy metals (HMs) and DS in maize cultivation, offering valuable insights for sustainable agricultural practices. Future research should focus on longterm field trials to validate these findings and explore the mechanistic pathways involved in stress mitigation by these amendments, as well as their economic feasibility and environmental impact on a larger scale.

    Keywords: Maize growth parameters, drought, heavy metal, Stress mitigation, crop management

    Received: 06 Mar 2024; Accepted: 15 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Anwar, QURESHI, Munir, Siddiqi, Fatimah, Zaman and Soufan. 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: Tauseef Anwar, Islamia University of Bahawalpur, Bahawalpur, Pakistan

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.