PJB-2022-560
Drought stress in wheat: mechanisms, effects and mitigation through vermicompost
Ali Ahmad, Zubair Aslam, Tahir Hussain Awan, Sairah Syed, Saddam Hussain, Sadam Hussain, Korkmaz Bellitürk and Safdar Bashir
Abstract
Climate change has increased the occurrence of biotic and abiotic stresses that steadily affected the crop growth and developmental processes. Drought is one of the worst abiotic stresses, affecting 40-70% of the global arable land. In recent years, a variety of genetic, molecular, and agronomic approaches have been developed to mitigate drought's negative effects. Among agronomic approaches, the use of vermicompost is reported to improve wheat growth and development while reducing the deleterious impact of drought stress. This review emphasizes the ramifications of drought stress on plant growth, water and nutrient interactions, photosynthesis, phenology, assimilate partitioning, and respiration. The physiological, morphological, and molecular mechanisms of drought tolerance in plants are described in detail. To combat drought stress tolerance, various management practices have been suggested. Drought stress decreases leaf area, stem elongation, and root multiplication, disrupts plant water relations and decreases water-use efficiency. Plants respond to prevalent drought stress in various biochemical and physiological ways; reduced water losses due to enhanced diffusive resistance, increased water absorption and efficient usage due to deep and extensive root systems, and smaller and succulent leaves to minimize transpirational losses are the major mechanism adapted by crop plants. Vermicompost, with a porous structure, encompasses high water storage potential, increase growth hormones such as auxins, cytokinins, and gibberlins, plant growth regulators, and contains high levels of macro and micro-nutrients and beneficial fungi, plays significant and positive impact on plant growth and development, particularly under environmental stresses
To Cite this article:
Ahmad, A., Z. Aslam, T.H. Awan, S. Syed, S. Hussain, S. Hussain, K. Bellitürk and S. Bashir. 2025. Drought stress in wheat: mechanisms, effects and mitigation through vermicompost. Pak. J. Bot., 57(1): DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.30848/PJB2025-1(20)
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