Response of Nanosilica on Physiological and Leaf Surface Anotomical Characters in Rice under Drought

Abstract

Abstract The experimentation was carried out during the summer (2021–2022) at the Rice Department, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore to assess the effects of nanosilica on drought imposed rice plants and to assess the impact of different concentrations of nanosilica (SiO2) on growth, anatomical, physio-biochemical parameters and yield characters of rice under drought conditions. In this experiment, different concentrations of the nanosilica formulation at 200, 400, 600, 800, and 1000 ppm were applied as foliar sprays under drought conditions. Spraying of 400 ppm of nanosilica formulation under drought stress in this field experiment has resulted of increases in leaf area and specific leaf weight of 14.3 and 15.3%, respectively. Application of 400 ppm nanosilica increases up to 12.5% in terms of membrane stability index (MSI), meanwhile in chlorophyll stability index (CSI) was increased up to 20.4%. Proline content was decreased up to 26.9% by application of nanosilica (400 ppm) in drought imposed treated plants. Trichome length and the length of the silica bodies were significantly increase of about 17.4 and 9.1% over the control. Application 400 ppm of nanosilica had maximum of 68.9 and 29.4% increment in terms of trichome and silicon bodies length over the drought. Stomatal structures are reduced significantly with mean reduction of 43.5% than the control in both the rice varieties. Under the drought, the average increase in stomatal size was 65.5% when 400 ppm nanosilica was applied. When exposed to 400 ppm of nanosilica treatments, CO54 showed more responses than the other variety in terms of leaf area, specific leaf weight, MSI, CSI, proline and leaf surface characteristics during drought.