Photosynthetic Performance of the Imidazolinone Resistant Sunflower Exposed to Single and Combined Treatment by the Herbicide Imazamox and an Amino Acid Extract

Dobrinka A. Balabanova, Momchil Paunov, Vasillij Goltsev, Ann Cuypers, Jaco Vangronsveld, Andon Vassilev

The herbicide imazamox may provoke temporary yellowing and growth retardation in IMI-R sunflower hybrids, more often under stressful environmental conditions. Although, photosynthetic processes are not the primary sites of imazamox action, they might be influenced; therefore, more information about the photosynthetic performance of the herbicide-treated plants could be valuable for a further improvement of the Clearfield technology. Plant biostimulants have been shown to ameliorate damages caused by different stress factors on plants, but very limited information exists about their effects on herbicide-stressed plants. In order to characterize photosynthetic performance of imazamox-treated sunflower IMI-R plants, we carried out experiments including both single and combined treatments by imazamox and a plant biostimulants containing amino acid extract. We found that imazamox application in a rate of 132 μg per plant (equivalent of 40 g active ingredient ha(-1)) induced negative effects on both light-light dependent photosynthetic redox reactions and leaf gas exchange processes, which was much less pronounced after the combined application of imazamox and amino acid extract.