Drought adversity negatively affects plant potential, rising the risk of global food security. Providing solution to make plant resilience to drought is important to tackle the backdrop of climate change. Treatments of plants with various chemical agents have recently emerged as a promising technique against various individual and combined abiotic stresses. The present study provided compelling evidence on how acetic acid application promotes drought acclimation responses in soybean by investigating several morphological, physiological and biochemical attributes. Foliar applications of acetic acid to drought-exposed soybean resulted in improvements in root biomass, leaf area, photosynthetic rate and water-use efficiency, leading to improved growth performance. Drought-induced accumulations of reactive oxygen species, and the resultant increased levels of malondialdehyde and electrolyte leakage were considerably reverted by acetic acid treatment. Acetic acid-sprayed plants suffered less oxidative stress due to the enhancement of antioxidant defense mechanisms, as evidenced by the increased activities of superoxide dismutase, ascorbate peroxidase, catalase, glutathione peroxidase and glutathione S-transferase. Improved shoot relative water content was also linked to the increased levels of soluble sugars and free amino acids, indicating a better osmotic adjustment following acetic acid treatment in drought-exposed plants. Acetic acid also triggered mineral transportation from roots to shoots, and improved overall mineral status in drought-stressed plants. Taken together, our results unraveled that acetic acid treatment enabled soybean plants to positively regulate photosynthetic ability, water balance, mineral homeostasis and antioxidant responses, thereby suggesting this cost-effective and easily-accessible chemical for the management of soybean growth and productivity in drought-prone areas. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

中文翻译：

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乙酸改善大豆的干旱驯化：光合作用、渗透调节、矿物质吸收和抗氧化防御的综合反应

干旱逆境对植物潜力产生负面影响，增加了全球粮食安全的风险。提供解决方案以提高植物抵御干旱的能力对于应对气候变化的背景很重要。用各种化学试剂处理植物最近已经成为一种有前途的技术，可以对抗各种个体和组合的非生物胁迫。本研究通过调查几种形态、生理和生化属性，为醋酸应用如何促进大豆的干旱驯化反应提供了令人信服的证据。将乙酸叶面施用于干旱暴露的大豆可改善根生物量、叶面积、光合速率和水分利用效率，从而提高生长性能。干旱引起的活性氧积累，由此产生的丙二醛和电解质泄漏水平的增加通过乙酸处理得到了显着的逆转。由于抗氧化防御机制的增强，醋酸喷洒植物遭受的氧化应激较少，超氧化物歧化酶、抗坏血酸过氧化物酶、过氧化氢酶、谷胱甘肽过氧化物酶和谷胱甘肽 S-转移酶的活性增加就证明了这一点。提高的芽相对含水量也与可溶性糖和游离氨基酸水平的增加有关，表明在暴露于干旱的植物中，醋酸处理后渗透调节更好。乙酸还引发了矿物质从根到芽的运输，并改善了干旱胁迫植物的整体矿物质状况。综合起来，我们的研究结果表明，醋酸处理使大豆植物能够积极调节光合作用能力、水平衡、矿物质稳态和抗氧化反应，从而表明这种具有成本效益且易于获取的化学品可用于管理干旱易发地区的大豆生长和生产力。本文受版权保护。版权所有。