Rootstock Priming with Shikimic Acid and Streptomyces griseus for Growth, Productivity, Physio-Biochemical, and Anatomical Characterisation of Tomato Grown under Cold Stress

Abstract

With this research, we aimed to determine the impact of grafting and rootstock seed treated with Streptomyces griseus (MT210913) (S. griseus) or shikimic acid (SA) at a 60 ppm concentration on tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) production grown under low-temperature conditions. Two open-field trials were performed during both winter seasons of 2020 and 2021 at the Experimental Farm, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt. A tomato cultivar (Peto 86) was used as a scion and two tomato phenotypes were employed as rootstocks (Solanum cheesmaniae L. (line LA 524) and GS hybrid), as well as self-grafted as a control. Effects of sub-optimal temperature on vegetative growth, yield, and fruit quality were tested. The results indicate that, under cold stress, rootstock seed priming, especially with S. griseus, enhanced plant growth, total yield, and fruit quality properties. GS hybrid rootstock was more effective than that of S. cheesmaniae rootstock in terms of mitigating the negative effect of cold stress. GS hybrid, inoculated with S. griseus, increased the total yield per plant by 10.5 % and 5.7 % in the first and second seasons, respectively. Higher levels of GA3 and mineral content were noticed in leaves that were grafted and treated with S. griseus compared to the control treatment. Additionally, the great enhancing effects of all anatomical features of tomato plants were recorded with GS hybrid rootstock, inoculated by S. griseus. These results prove that grafting on GS hybrid rootstock treated with S. griseus is a potential choice to alleviate the cold stress of commercial tomato varieties.

Synergistic Influence of Arbuscular mycorrhizal Fungi Inoculation with Nanoparticle Foliar Application Enhances Chili (Capsicum annuum L.) Antioxidant Enzymes, Anatomical Characteristics, and Productivity under Cold-Stress Conditions

“…Cold stress reduces productivity by slowing CO 2 fixation and fruit photosynthetic partitioning [ 31 ]. These results are consistent with those previously reported [ 26 , 32 ]. In particular, AMF colonization combined with ZnO-NPs and Se-NPs spraying yielded drastically higher fruit weight, fruit number, and total marketable fruit yield in both seasons.…”

“…According to the results, the fruit quality traits changed due to cold stress. Similar results were obtained for tomatoes by the authors of [ 32 ]. Chili fruits harvested from AMF with nanoparticles mixture (ZnO-NPs + Se-NPs) recorded high values of single-fruit weight, fruit diameter, fruit length, ascorbic acid, and capsaicin content in both seasons compared to the control ( Table 2 ).…”

“…Plants have enzymatic defense systems to purify free radicals under cold stress. Changes in antioxidant enzyme levels have been associated with cold-stress reactions [ 32 ]. AMF combined with ZnO-NPs + Se-NPs improved the POD enzyme content in chili leaves in both seasons.…”