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Abstract

Drought induced stress inhibits wheat production by reducing vegetative development, photosynthesis and many metabolic processes. In recent years, micronutrient-derived green nanoparticles have been identified as a viable approach to reduce drought stress. However, data regarding research on green synthesized ZnO nanoparticles on wheat under drought stress remains poorly studied. Therefore, this study evaluated the impact of green synthesized zinc oxide nanoparticles on wheat under normal and drought conditions. ZnO nanoparticles were applied as foliar spray with concentrations of 0,50,100,150 and 200ppm in completely randomized design using wheat variety Akbar-2019. Wheat growth attributes, chlorophyll content, stress markers and antioxidant enzymes were assessed to check effect of drought and its mitigation by ZnO-NPs. Under drought stress, most treatments reduced plant height by 15% to 21%. However, 50 ppm ZnO-NPs treatment increased height by 10.7%, indicating a protective dose-dependent effect. Under drought, shoot length increased by 22-32% with 50-100 ppm ZnO-NPs, while root length increased by 20-35%, indicating a significant promotion of below-ground development. Drought dramatically reduced root fresh and dry weights, whereas ZnO-NPs (T100 and T200) increased root biomass by 14-17% (fresh) and 20-25% (dry) compared to drought controls. Under drought, ZnO-NP treatment increased chlorophyll content (SPAD) by 39-64%, indicating improved photosynthetic stability. Drought raised H2O2 levels by 2.0-2.5-fold, but ZnO-NPs reduced oxidative damage by 30-45%. Antioxidant enzymes responded strongly, with SOD activity rising 10-25% and CAT activity increasing 40-70% under ZnO-NP treatments during dryness, indicating ROS-scavenging pathway activation. From these results we concluded that the application of green synthesized ZnO-NPs significantly improved wheat tolerance to drought by increasing plant growth attributes and inhibiting oxidative stress injuries up to 45% and activated antioxidant defense up to 20 to70%. This research highlighted that biogenic ZnO-NPs is effective way to mitigate drought stress in wheat and it’s a potential sustainable method for crop resilience and stress conditions.

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