Naringenin Alleviates Drought Stress on Wheat by Regulating Physiological and Biochemical Systems and the Expression of Drought-Related Genes

Drought stress is one of the consequences of climate change that has a negative impact on wheat growth and yield. Naringenin, a flavonoid is potentially able to confer protection against various abiotic and biotic stresses. In this study, the healing effects of naringenin (0.25 and 0.5 mM) were determined on drought stress (-6 bar PEG6000) treated 14 days old of wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) plants on some physiological and biochemical markers. Moreover, the expressions of stress-related genes and transcription factors (TdPIP1, TaEXPB23, TaNAC2a, TACP, and TaDREB2a) were differentiated in naringenin and naringenin plus drought treatments. Drought-stressed plants showed a decrease in chlorophyll content (CC) (28%), leaf relative water content (LRWC) (62%), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) content (2127.58 nmol/kg of FW), and superoxide dismutase (SOD) enzyme activity (70.57 EU/g of FW) while an increase in the electrolyte leakage (EL) (58%) and malondialdehyde (MDA) content (0.7548 nmol/kg of FW) as well as ascorbate peroxidase (APX) enzyme activity (14.35 EU/g of FW) compared to control. Furthermore, drought mostly upregulated the TdPIP1 and TACP genes and downregulated the genes of TaEXPB23 and TaNAC2a. On the other hand, the application of naringenin improved the irregularities of the physiological and biochemical changes and expression of stress-related genes that were caused by drought stress. Thus, our findings suggest that naringenin treatment is an efficient strategy that can be used to boost the tolerance of wheat plants to drought stress.