Abstract
Water stress executes severe influences on the plant growth and development through modifying physio-chemical properties. Therefore, a field experiment was designed to evaluate the antioxidant status and their enhancements strategies for water stress tolerance in chickpea on loam and clay loam soils under agro-ecological conditions of Arid Zone Research Institute, Bahawalpur (29.3871 °N, 71.653 °E) and Cholistan farm near Derawer (28.19°N, 71.80°E) of Southern Punjab, Pakistan during winter 2014-15. Experimental treatments comprised of two chickpea cultivars i.e. Bhakhar 2011 (drought tolerant) and DUSHT (drought sensitive), two water stress levels i.e. water stress at flowering stage and water stress at flowering + pod formation + grain filling stage including well watered (control) and two exogenous application of osmoprotectants i.e. glycine betaine (GB) 20 ppm and proline 10 uM including distilled water (control). Results indicated that water stress at various growth stages adversely affects the growth, yield and quality attributes of both chickpea cultivars. Exogenous application of GB and proline improved the growth, yield and quality parameters of both chickpea cultivars even under water stress conditions. However, superior results were obtained with exogenously applied GB on Bhakhar 2011 under well-watered conditions. Similarly, foliar spray of GB on chickpea cultivar Bhakhar 2011 under stress at flowering + pod formation + grain filling stage produced maximum superoxide dismutase, peroxidase and catalase contents. These results suggested that application of GB mitigates the adverse effects of water stress and enhanced tolerance in chickpea mainly due to higher antioxidant enzymes activity, demonstrating the protective measures of plant cells in stress condition. Hence, antioxidants status might be a suitable method for illustrating water stress tolerance in chickpea.
Highlights
Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) belongs to leguminosae family, plays an important role in human nutrition for large population sectors in the developing world and is considered as a healthy food in many developed countries (Merga and Haji, 2019)
Chickpea genotype DUSHT cultivated under water stress at flowering + pod formation + grain filling stage produced minimum Crop growth rate (CGR) throughout the growing season
Exogenous application of osmoprotectants on chickpea genotypes under water stress conditions significantly affected the Relative growth rate (RGR) recorded at different growth stages at both locations (Figure 2a and 2b)
Summary
Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) belongs to leguminosae family, plays an important role in human nutrition for large population sectors in the developing world and is considered as a healthy food in many developed countries (Merga and Haji, 2019). In addition to its high protein content (20-28%) and carbohydrates (60-65%), chickpea is a good source of essential amino acids and minerals (Merga and Haji, 2019). When plants are subjected to water stress conditions, show lot of morpho-physiological and biochemical changes (Reddy and Raghavendra, 2006). Under such conditions, some reactive oxygen species (ROS) are produced (MunneBosch and Penuelas, 2003). Imbalance between the production of ROS and the antioxidant defense inhibits the growth and photosynthetic abilities of plants and injure the cellular components of proteins, membrane lipids and nucleic acids under water stress conditions (Peifang et al, 2015)
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