Abstract
Two Job’s tears cultivars, yy18-1 (high resistance to drought stress) and yy12-7 (susceptible to drought stress) were used to investigate the responses of seed germination, root and seedling growth, and seedling antioxidant characteristics to drought stress simulated by polyethylene glycol (PEG) 6000 solutions with 0, -0.05, -0.1, -0.15, and -0.2 MPa osmotic potentials. The results showed that the germination energy, germination rate, germination index, root and seedling lengths, root and seedling diameters, root and seedling fresh masses, root and seedling dry masses, and seedling relative water content (RWC) decreased with the decrease of the osmotic potential of PEG 6000 solution. The contents of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), malondialdehyde (MDA), and proline in seedling increased with the decrease of the osmotic potential of PEG 6000 solution. The activities of peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT), ascorbate peroxidase (APX), and glutathione reductase (GR) in seedling increased and then decreased with the decrease of osmotic potential of PEG 6000 solution. -0.1 MPa was the optimal osmotic potential of PEG 6000 solution simulated drought stress at germination stage for Job’s tears. The proline content and activities of POD and CAT were important mechanisms for the maintenance of drought resistance in Job’s tears seedling.
Highlights
Two Job’s tears cultivars, yy18-1 and yy12-7 were used to investigate the responses of seed germination, root and seedling growth, and seedling antioxidant characteristics to drought stress simulated by polyethylene glycol (PEG) 6000 solutions with 0, −0.05, −0.1, −0.15, and −0.2 MPa osmotic potentials
The results showed that the germination energy, germination rate, germination index, root and seedling lengths, root and seedling diameters, root and seedling fresh masses, root and seedling dry masses, and seedling relative water content (RWC) decreased with the decrease of the osmotic potential of PEG 6000 solution
Osmotic potentials were produced by PEG6000 solutions of 0, 50, 80, 100, and 120 g∙L−1 according to equation supplied by Michel and Kaufmann [12]
Summary
It is widely cultivated in some Asian countries including China, Japan, Korea, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and Burma. China is the largest producer of Job’s tears, especially Guizhou province in southwest China [1]. Job’s tears has been praised as the king of Gramineae crops due to its high nutritional value. It is rich in protein, essential amino acid, vitamins, minerals, dietary fibre, fatty acid, carbohydrates, oligosaccharides, coixenolide, and coixol, which is used as porridge, flour, noodle, or drink [2]. Job’s tears can be used to defend against cancer, cure warts, suppress colon carcinogenesis, regulate blood sugar level, cure chronic diarrhea, cure dermatophytosis, prevent gallstone formation, cure edema, and clear heat [3]
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