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© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.

Abstract

In the context of climate change, strategies aimed at enhancing trees’ resistance to biotic and abiotic stress are particularly relevant. We applied an electromagnetic field (EMF) seed treatment to observe changes in the establishment and content of biochemical compounds in silver birch seedlings induced by a short (1 min) seed exposure to a physical stressor. The impact of EMF treatment was evaluated on seedling emergence and growth of one-year-old and two-year-old seedlings from seven half-sib families of silver birch. The effects on numerous biochemical parameters in seedling leaves, such as total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), amounts of photosynthetic pigments, total soluble sugars (TSS), level of lipid peroxidation level, antioxidant activity and activity of antioxidant enzymes, were compared using spectrophotometric methods. The results indicated that, in one-year-old seedlings, two of seven (60th and 73rd) half-sib families exhibited a positive response to seed treatment with EMFs in nearly all analyzed parameters. For example, in the 60th family, seed treatment with EMFs increased the percentage of emergence by 3 times, one-year-old seedling height by 71%, leaf TPC by 47%, antioxidant activity by 2 times and amount of chlorophyll a by 4.6 times. Meanwhile, the other two (86th and 179th) families exhibited a more obvious positive response to EMF in two-year-old seedlings as compared to one-year-old seedling controls. The results revealed that short-term EMF treatment of silver birch seeds can potentially be used to improve seedling emergence and growth and increase the content of secondary metabolites, antioxidant capacity and photosynthetic pigments. Understanding of the impact of EMFs as well as the influence of genetic differences on tree responses can be significant for practical applications in forestry. Genetic selection of plant genotypes that exhibit positive response trends can open the way to improve the quality of forest stands.

Details

Title
Seed Treatment with Electromagnetic Field Induces Different Effects on Emergence, Growth and Profiles of Biochemical Compounds in Seven Half-Sib Families of Silver Birch
Author
Čėsnienė, Ieva 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Miškelytė, Diana 2 ; Novickij, Vitalij 3   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Mildažienė, Vida 4   VIAFID ORCID Logo  ; Vaida Sirgedaitė-Šėžienė 1   VIAFID ORCID Logo 

 Institute of Forestry, Lithuanian Research Centre for Agriculture and Forestry, Liepų 1, LT-53101 Girionys, Lithuania; [email protected] 
 Department of Environmental Sciences, Vytautas Magnus University, Universiteto 10, LT-53361 Kaunas, Lithuania; [email protected] 
 Institute of High Magnetic Fields, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University, Saulėtekio al. 11, LT-10223 Vilnius, Lithuania; [email protected]; Department of Immunology, State Research Institute Centre for Innovative Medicien, Santariskiu g. 5, LT-08406 Vilnius, Lithuania 
 Faculty of Natural Sciences, Vytautas Magnus University, Universiteto 10, LT-53361 Kaunas, Lithuania; [email protected] 
First page
3048
Publication year
2023
Publication date
2023
Publisher
MDPI AG
e-ISSN
22237747
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2862653121
Copyright
© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.