Natural bee-honey based biostimulants confer salt tolerance in onion via modulation of the antioxidant defence system |
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| Authors: | Wael Morad Semida Taia Ali Abd El-Mageed Khaulood Hemida Mostafa Mohamed Rady |
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| Institution: | 1. Horticulture Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Fayoum University, Fayoum, Egypt;2. Soil and Water Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Fayoum University, Fayoum, Egypt;3. Botany Department, Faculty of Science, Fayoum University, Fayoum, Egypt;4. Botany Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Fayoum University, Fayoum, Egypt |
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| Abstract: | Plant biostimulants are an emerging trend of crop management products which can enhance nutrient uptake, plant growth and productivity under various abiotic stresses. The ability of diluted bee-honey extract (DHE) to enhance the tolerance of onion plants to salinity stress has been investigated. Two-season field experiments were consecutively conducted in 2015/16 and 2016/17 to study the effect of 25–50 g/L DHE foliar application on growth, yield, physio-biochemical attributes, and antioxidative defence of two onion cultivars (i.e. GizaRed and Giza-20) grown on a saline soil (EC = 8.81 dS m?1). Results exhibited that DHE significantly increased biomass production, bulb yield and water use efficiency, leaf photosynthetic and pigments contents. Additionally, DHE applicati\on also improves osmoprotectants, membrane stability index (MSI) and relative water content (RWC), and enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants of both onion cultivars in comparison with untreated control plants. In general, both cultivars showed a similar response to the DHE. Results of this study highlighted the potential impact of DHE as a promising plant bio-stimulant for overcoming the harmful effects of soil salinity stress by increasing the activity of plant antioxidative defence systems |
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| Keywords: | Biostimulants bee-honey antioxidative defence system tissue health salt stress onions |
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