Abstract
Water being a vital part of cell protoplasm plays a significant role in sustaining life on earth; however, drastic changes in climatic conditions lead to limiting the availability of water and causing other environmental adversities. α-tocopherol being a powerful antioxidant, protects lipid membranes from the drastic effects of oxidative stress by deactivating singlet oxygen, reducing superoxide radicals, and terminating lipid peroxidation by reducing fatty acyl peroxy radicals under drought stress conditions. A pot experiment was conducted and two groups of lentil cultivar (Punjab-2009) were exposed to 20 and 25 days of drought induced stress by restricting the availability of water after 60th day of germination. Both of the groups were sprinkled with α-tocopherol 100, 200 and 300 mg/L. Induced water deficit stress conditions caused a pronounced decline in growth parameters including absolute growth rate (AGR), leaf area index (LAI), leaf area ratio (LAR), root shoot ratio (RSR), relative growth rate (RGR), chlorophyll a, b, total chlorophyll content, carotenoids, and soluble protein content (SPC) which were significantly enhanced by exogenously applied α-tocopherol. Moreover, a significant increase was reported in total proline content (TPC), soluble sugar content (SSC), glycine betaine (GB) content, endogenous tocopherol levels, ascorbate peroxidase (APX), catalase (CAT) peroxidase (POD) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities. On the contrary, exogenously applied α-tocopherol significantly reduced the concentrations of malondialdehyde (MDA) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). In conclusion, it was confirmed that exogenous application of α-tocopherol under drought induced stress regimes resulted in membrane protection by inhibiting lipid peroxidation, enhancing the activities of antioxidative enzymes (APX, CAT, POD, and SOD) and accumulation of osmolytes such as glycine betaine, proline and sugar. Consequently, modulating different growth, physiological and biochemical attributes.
Highlights
IntroductionChanging climatic condition is becoming an obstacle in fulfilling the demand of food and achieving a sustainable agriculture; climatic changes result in droughts, heavy floods, earthquakes, fluctuation in temperature and other environmental adversities, that lead to reduce crop productivity [1]
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Changing climatic condition is becoming an obstacle in fulfilling the demand of food and achieving a sustainable agriculture; climatic changes result in droughts, heavy floods, earthquakes, fluctuation in temperature and other environmental adversities, that lead to reduce crop productivity [1]
Summary
Changing climatic condition is becoming an obstacle in fulfilling the demand of food and achieving a sustainable agriculture; climatic changes result in droughts, heavy floods, earthquakes, fluctuation in temperature and other environmental adversities, that lead to reduce crop productivity [1]. With increasing climatic changes crops are losing their yield potential, making it hard to fulfil the increasing demand of food around the world [4]. Keeping in mind the present scenario of climate change, it is predicted that 2.1 million hectares of land of Pakistan will be affected by drought by 2025 [5]. During the spring season crops of Punjab suffer from drought stress due to higher rate of transpiration and elevated temperature. Most parts of the central, southern Punjab and parts of eastern Sindh do not fall under the domain of winter rains, and 50% of the time remains dry, considered drought susceptible zones [6]
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