94% of researchers rate our articles as excellent or good
Learn more about the work of our research integrity team to safeguard the quality of each article we publish.
Find out more
ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Abiotic Stress
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1495141
This article is part of the Research Topic Plant Ecophysiology: Responses to Climate Changes and Stress Conditions View all 28 articles
Implications for Growth Regulation and Antioxidant Defense in Maize Plants through interplay of Auxins and Nitric Oxide
Provisionally accepted- 1 Department of Botany, Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, Pakistan
- 2 Department of Agriculture, Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan
Indole-3-Acetic Acids play a central role in regulating plant growth and development by modulating various processes to environmental stresses. Conversely, nitric oxide (NO2) has a variety of effects on plants, acting as a signaling molecule at low concentrations and triggering growth inhibition and oxidative stress at higher concentrations. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effects of IAA and NO2 on maize plants. We measured various growth parameters, chlorophyll content, relative water content, enzymatic activities (SOD, POD, APX and CAT) and non-enzymatic antioxidants (TFC, TPC, ascorbic acid and tocopherols), along with abscisic acid, Jasmonic acid and stress-reducing genes. Our results showed that IAA-treated plants had improved growth parameters by 33%, chlorophyll synthesis by 30%, relative water content by 41%, and antioxidant activities by 30% compared to the control. Conversely, NO2 treatment resulted in growth inhibition by 37%, reduced chlorophyll levels by 30%, reduced RWC by 57% and reduced antioxidant enzyme activity by 34% compared to control.Remarkably, the combined treatment with IAA and NO2 restored the physiological parameters to values comparable to the control values, suggesting a possible compensatory effect. Furthermore, IAA treatment suppressed endogenous levels of stress-inducing hormones such as ABA by 28% and JA by 21% compared to control, while NO2 exposure increased their concentrations by 23% (JA) and 30% (ABA), respectively. Interestingly, the combined treatment balances hormone levels similarly to unstressed plants. These results provide valuable insights into increasing plant productivity and resilience to environmental stresses and warrant further research to uncover potential agricultural applications.
Keywords: auxins, Nitric Oxide, Maize plants, growth regulation, Antioxidant Defense
Received: 12 Sep 2024; Accepted: 03 Mar 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yousaf, Hussain, Hamayun and Iqbal. 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 Junaid Yousaf, Department of Botany, Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, Pakistan
Anwar Hussain, Department of Botany, Abdul Wali Khan University, Mardan, 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.