Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Acta Physiologiae Plantarum, cilt.48, sa.5, 2026 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
Triacontanol (TRIA), a natural plant growth regulation has been used on millions of hectares to increase agricultural productivity. In our study, to investigate the effects of TRIA on the resistance to Copper (Cu) heavy metal, bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L. Ayyıldız) seeds were planted in petri dishes containing CuSO4 (50, 100 and 200 µM). After germination, TRIA (10, 20 and 40 µM) was sprayed on the leaves on the 7th day. The plants were harvested on the 10th day. While some of the harvested plant root and leaf samples were first used for length measurements and fresh dry weight measurements, the remaining part was used to determine antioxidant enzyme activities such as catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POX), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and additionally lipid peroxidation (LPO) level and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) amount. TRIA + Cu applications caused changes in enzyme activities depending on the doses. TRIA application, which caused an increase in Cu in malondialdehyde (MDA) content, decreased. A general decrease in H2O2 content was observed in leaf tissue. However, in root tissue, H2O2 content increased with Cu application, while it decreased with TRIA application. In addition, in silico molecular docking analyses were performed to explore potential interactions between Cu2+ ions and key physiological and antioxidant-related target proteins. The docking scores for WRKY4, catalase, peroxidase, and superoxide dismutase were 4.991, 4.055, 6.327, and 4.673, respectively, indicating stable Cu2+ binding through conserved coordination environments. These findings provide mechanistic support for the experimentally observed alterations in antioxidant enzyme activities. As a result, it was suggested that TRIA played an important role in the antioxidant mechanism in wheat exposed to copper stress.