Thiourea: A Molecule with Immense Biological Significance for Plants

Abstract

To cite this paper: Wahid, A., S.M.A. Basra and M. Farooq, 2017. Thiourea: a molecule with immense biological significance for plants. Int. J. Agric. Biol., AbstractThiourea, also chemically named as Thiocarbamide, is a nitrogen and sulfur containing compound. It has three functional groups, amino, imino and thiol, each with important biological roles. Thiourea is being increasingly used to improve plant growth and productivity under normal and stressful conditions. Use of thiourea as seed priming agent, foliar spray or medium supplementation is more effective under environmental stress than under normal conditions. When used as seed pretreatment, thiourea increased the seed germination; while application as foliar spray improved the gas exchange properties and when used as medium supplementation, it improved the root growth and its proliferation. This indicates that thiourea is more effective in the tissues where it is applied. Although to a differential extent, thiourea is effective in improving plant growth and development under drought, salinity, heat stress and heavy metal toxicity. At physiological level, it improves the leaf gas exchange, nutrient acquisition by the root and assimilation thereafter. At biochemical level, exogenously applied thiourea improves the sugar metabolism and enhances the proteins biosynthesis. At molecular level, thiourea application modulates the pattern of gene expression regardless of the stress applied. Signaling of gene expression is a likely mechanism induced by thiourea. In a nutshell, even though considerable advancement has been made in understanding the biological roles of thiourea in modulating different mechanisms in plants, thiourea needs to be explored further for its biological roles in plants than the relevant information available thus far.

Effect of growth substances on morpho-physiological traits and yield in pearl millet under rainfed condition

“…At physiological level, it improves the leaf gas exchange, nutrient acquisition by the root and assimilation thereafter. At biochemical level, exogenously applied thiourea improves the sugar metabolism and enhances the proteins biosynthesis (Wahid et al, 2017) [3,10] . With this basis, the present investigation was focused on physiological, biochemical and yield attributes in pearl millet by foliar application of nutrients and PGRs under drought condition.…”

Potential Mechanisms of Abiotic Stress Tolerance in Crop Plants Induced by Thiourea

“…Therefore, to improve plant performance and economic returns to farmers amidst the ongoing challenge of a rapidly changing climate, it is important to investigate new avenues for TU-induced tolerance in crop plants. However, the published reviews only focused either on crop productivity gains, or biological changes with TU application (Pasala et al, 2016; Wahid et al, 2017). Thus, this review discusses the biological role of TU in inducing tolerance against abiotic stresses (e.g.…”

Exogenous application of sulphydryl compounds enhances growth, photosynthetic efficiency and yield of moth bean (Vigna aconitifolia L.) under water limiting environment

“…The beneficial role of PBR's in enhancing the crop yields through the regulation of physiological processes and plantwater relationships recently been elaborated through several reports (Vineeth et al, 2017;Wakchaure et al, 2016). The protective mechanism of PBR's regulates the root growth for improving plant water/nutrient status, photosynthetic efficiency and source-sink homeostasis resulting enhanced yield and metabolism for overall improvement in plant growth (Srivastava et al, 2016;Nathawat et al, 2016;Wahid et al, 2017). Effect of sulphydryl compounds application on activities of (A) glutathione reductase (µmol min -1 mg -1 protein) and (B) glutathione -S -trasferase (µmol min -1 mg -1 protein) in leaves of Vigna aconitifolia.…”

“…Application of bioregulators may modify morphological and physiological characteristics of plant to the environment which improves the growth dry matter production and yield (Pandey et al, 2013;Kaya et al, 2015). Numerous plant bio-regulators (PBR's) and other plant hormones have been recently tried to impart stress tolerance to crop under water deficit (Perveen et al 2016;Ratnakumar et al, 2016;Wahid et al, 2017). Thiourea (TU) and thioglycollic acid (TGA) as the sulphydryl groups has diverse biological activities.…”