Biochemical Alterations in Triticale Seedlings Pretreated with Selective Herbicide and Subjected to Drought or Waterlogging Stress

Waterlogging and drought disrupt crop development and productivity. Triticale is known to be relatively tolerant to different stress factors. In natural conditions, plants are rather subjected to multiple environmental factors. Serrate^® (Syngenta) is a systemic selective herbicide suitable for cereal crops such as triticale and wheat to restrain annual grass and broadleaf weeds. Triticale (×Triticosecale Wittm., cv. Rozhen) was grown as soil culture under controlled conditions. Seventeen-day-old plantlets were leaf sprayed with Serrate^®. The water stress (drought or waterlogging) was applied after 72 h for 7 days, and then the seedlings were left for recovery. The herbicide does not provoke sharp alterations in the antioxidant state (stress markers level, and antioxidant and xenobiotic-detoxifying enzymes activity). The water stresses and combined treatments enhanced significantly the content of stress markers (malondialdehyde, proline, hydrogen peroxide), non-enzymatic (total phenolics and thiol groups-containing compounds), and enzymatic (activities of superoxide dismutase, catalase, guaiacol peroxidase, glutathione reductase) antioxidants, and xenobiotic-detoxifying enzymes (activities of glutathione S-transferase, NADPH:cytochrome P450 reductase, NADH:cytochrome b5 reductase). These effects were more severely expressed after the drought stress, suggesting that this cultivar is more tolerant to waterlogging than to drought stress.