Abstract
The present study was conducted to examine the adaptability of 11 sugar beet cultivars grown under drought stress in the controlled glasshouse. The treatment was initiated on 30-day-old sugar beet plants where drought stress was made withholding water supply for consecutive 10 days while control was done with providing water as per requirement. It was observed that drought stress expressively reduced plant growth, photosynthetic pigments, and photosynthetic quantum yield in all the cultivars but comparative better results were observed in S1 (MAXIMELLA), S2 (HELENIKA), S6 (RECODDINA), S8 (SV2347), and S11 (BSRI Sugarbeet 2) cultivars. Besides, osmolytes like proline, glycine betaine, total soluble carbohydrate, total soluble sugar, total polyphenol, total flavonoid, and DPPH free radical scavenging activity were remarkably increased under drought condition in MAXIMELLA, HELENIKA, TERRANOVA, GREGOIA, SV2348, and BSRI Sugar beet 2 cultivars. In contrast, activities of enzymes like superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and peroxidase (POD) were significantly decreased in all, while the cultivars SV2347, BSRI Sugar beet 1 and BSRI Sugar beet 2 were found with increased ascorbate peroxidase (APX) activity under drought condition. In parallel, polyphenol oxidase (PPO) was increased in all cultivars except HELENIKA. Overall, the cultivars HELENIKA, RECODDINA, GREGOIA, SV2347, SV2348, BSRI Sugar beet 1, and BSRI Sugar beet 2 were found best fitted to the given drought condition. These findings would help further for the improvement of stress adaptive sugar beet cultivars development in the breeding program for drought-prone regions.
Highlights
To overcome the threats on the agriculture and ecosystem, top-most priority has been given to evaluate the plant response under hostile environments, such as heat, drought, cold, toxic metals, and nutrient deficiency [1,2]
Higher plant height was recorded from S6 followed by S5, S7, S2, S3, S1, and S4 in control while S6 followed by S4, S3, S7, and S1 in drought condition
Drought stress condition revealed lower weight in all genotypes ranging from 2.5 to 1.11 g where S10 followed by S4, S2, S11 and S9 were recorded as a higher value
Summary
To overcome the threats on the agriculture and ecosystem, top-most priority has been given to evaluate the plant response under hostile environments, such as heat, drought, cold, toxic metals, and nutrient deficiency [1,2] These harsh conditions are collectively referred to as abiotic stress which directly interlinked with the plant growth, development, and overall crop productivity [3,4]. Plants 2020, 9, 1511 potential yield reduction of sugar beet in Europe, ranging from 5 to 30% each year [6] This event is more tremendous in other regions including arid and semi-arid [7], where rainfall is relatively low. One such region is South Korea, where drought is a common phenomenon due to the short summer monsoon season [8].
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