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Abstract

Salinity stress inhibits plant growth by interfering with water balance and nutrient uptake. It also decreased cell division and slowed the overall development processes of plants. Quercetin (QC), indole acetic acid (IAA), and zinc ferrite nanoparticles (ZnFNP) can be effective techniques to overcome this critical issue. QC positively impacts plants by enhancing nutrient uptake, promoting root-microbe interactions, and mitigating oxidative stress, thereby contributing to improved growth, enhanced nutrient assimilation, and increased stress resilience. IAA, a physiologically active auxin from PGPR microorganisms, enhances plant growth by efficiently carrying essential nutrients, enhancing nutrient absorption and enzymatic activities, and promoting sustainable crop productivity. ZnFNP enhances plant growth by efficiently transporting essential nutrients, facilitating enhanced nutrient absorption, enzymatic activity, and metabolic processes, while also possessing antioxidant properties, thereby promoting sustainable crop productivity. That’s why the current experiment was conducted to explore the impact of QC and IAA with and without ZnFNP on pea plants under salinity stress. A total of four treatments, including control, QC, IAA, and QC+IAA, were applied in four replications, following a completely randomized design. Results showed that QC+IAA with ZnFNP caused a significant increase in pea root length (14.74%), root dry weight (32.41%), shoot length (35.48%), and shoot dry weight (36.31%) over the control. The improvement in pea leaves chlorophyll a (34.96%), chlorophyll b (35.23%), total chlorophyll (35.02%), net CO2 assimilation rate (50.54%), transpiration rate (48.91%), and stomatal conductance (34.54%) compared to the control showed the positive potential of QC+IAA with ZnFNP. In conclusion, QC+IAA with ZnFNP is the recommended amendment for mitigating salinity stress in pea plants.

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