Abstract

Glycinebetaine (GB) is an osmoprotectant found in plants under environmental stresses that incorporates drought and is associated with drought tolerance in several plants, such as the woody pear. However, how GB improves drought tolerance in pears remains unclear. In the current study, we explored the mechanism by which GB enhances drought tolerance of whole pear plants (Pyrus bretschneideri Redh. cv. Suli) supplied with exogenous GB. The results showed that on the sixth day after withholding water, levels of O2·−, H2O2, malonaldehyde (MDA) and electrolyte leakage in the leaves were substantially increased by 143%, 38%, 134% and 155%, respectively. Exogenous GB treatment was substantially reduced O2·−, H2O2, MDA and electrolyte leakage (38%, 24%, 38% and 36%, respectively) in drought-stressed leaves. Furthermore, exogenous GB induced considerably higher antioxidant enzyme activity in dry-stressed leaves than drought-stressed treatment alone on the sixth day after withholding water, such as superoxide dismutase (SOD) (201%) and peroxidase (POD) (127%). In addition, these GB-induced phenomena led to increased endogenous GB levels in the leaves of the GB 100 + drought and GB 500 + drought treatment groups by 30% and 78%, respectively, compared to drought treatment alone. The findings obtained were confirmed by the results of the disconnected leaf tests, in which GB contributed to a substantial increase in SOD activity and parallel dose- and time-based decreases in MDA levels. These results demonstrate that GB-conferred drought resistance in pears may be due in part to minimizing symptoms of oxidative harm incurred in response to drought by the activities of antioxidants and by reducing the build-up of ROS and lipid peroxidation.

Highlights

  • Drought stress is one of the most serious abiotic stresses limiting plant growth, development, health and productivity [1,2,3]

  • When plants were subjected to mild and moderate drought stress on the third and sixth days after water withdrawal (GB spraying), respectively, O2 − in the leaves of the sewer-treated plants without GB treatment significantly increased their production (40% and 143%, respectively) relative to water-resistant controls (Fig 1A)

  • Increased superoxide dismutase (SOD) levels were observed in 50–1000 mg L−1 GBtreated dehydrated leaves, but no substantial difference was noted between the 50 mg L−1 GB dehydrated leaves and the GB-untreated dehydrated leaves (Fig 6A)

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Summary

Introduction

Drought stress is one of the most serious abiotic stresses limiting plant growth, development, health and productivity [1,2,3]. Drought stress can trigger several responses in plants, including. Glycinebetaine mitigates drought stress-induced oxidative damage in pears funding involved in the study. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Results
Discussion
Conclusion

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