Antioxidant defense system in chickpea against drought stress at pre- and post- flowering stages

Abstract

Ten wilt resistant and three wilt susceptible chickpea genotypes were subjected to drought stress at pre and post flowering stages along with four drought tolerant and three drought susceptible checks by withholding irrigation. The three wilt resistant chickpea genotypes viz., GJG 0922, JG 24 and JG 2001-4 recorded significant increase in proline and glycine betaine accumulation and SOD, APX, GPX, CAT activities under water-deficit stress at preflowering stage. The mean leaf proline content of the control genotypes was 23.72 µmol g−1 DW and increased to 56.73 µmol g−1 DW under drought stress at preflowering stage. Based on the level of osmolyte accumulation, induction of antioxidative enzymes, five chickpea genotypes viz., JG 552476, GJG 0922, JG 24, JG 2001-4 and GJG 0919 could be categorized as drought tolerant. Chickpea genotype PBG 5 which recorded 26.8% wilt incidence and exhibited higher induction of antioxidative enzymes was rolerant to drought stress at preflowering stage while the three wilt resistant genotypes viz., BCP 2010-1, GJG 0904 and IPC 1048 appeared to be drought susceptible.