Plant Soil Environ., 2025, 71(6):441-452 | DOI: 10.17221/663/2024-PSE

Gamma-aminobutyric acid improves cold tolerance of wheat seedlingsShort Communication

Changjuan Shan1,2, Zhimin Yuan1
1 Henan Institute of Science and Technology, Xinxiang, P.R. China
2 Xinxiang Pasture Engineering Technology Research Center, Xinxiang, P.R. China

To provide a new agent to enhance wheat cold tolerance, we investigated the impacts of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) on wheat antioxidant and photosynthetic capacity and growth parameters under cold stress (CS). CS significantly improved superoxide dismutase, catalase, peroxidase, ascorbate peroxidase and gluathione reductase in wheat leaves. Meanwhile, CS also increased the contents of reduced ascorbate (AsA) and reduced glutathione (GSH). However, CS significantly increased electrolyte leakage (EL) and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels. Compared with CS, GABA + CS improved the activities of the above antioxidant enzymes and the contents of antioxidants. In this way, GABA improved wheat antioxidant capacity and decreased MDA content and EL under CS. Whereas CS significantly increased non-photochemical quenching coefficient (qN) and reduced soil and plant analyser development (SPAD) value, net photosynthetic rate (Pn), maximum photochemical efficiency of PSII (Fv/Fm), effective quantum yield of PS II (Y(II)), photochemical quenching coefficient (qP), plant height and biomass. Compared to CS, GABA + CS significantly promoted the photosynthetic capacity by reducing qN and increasing SPAD value, Pn, Fv/Fm, Y(II) and qP. In this way, GABA improved plant growth under CS. Our results indicated that GABA can be used as a new agent to improve wheat cold tolerance.

Keywords: cold damage; chlorophyll fluorescence parameters; osmoregulation; photosynthetic pigments; reactive oxygen species

Received: December 18, 2024; Revised: May 10, 2025; Accepted: May 19, 2025; Prepublished online: June 5, 2025; Published: June 25, 2025  Show citation

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Shan C, Yuan Z. Gamma-aminobutyric acid improves cold tolerance of wheat seedlings. Plant Soil Environ. 2025;71(6):441-452. doi: 10.17221/663/2024-PSE.
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