Abstract
Erythrina velutina (mulungu) is an endemic species of caatinga found in Northeast Brazil. As a result of its rapid plant growth, the species may be an alternative for the recovery of degraded areas. Thus, the present study aimed to analyze the effects of irrigation with different field capacilities (FC): 20, 50 and 80% on plant growth, antioxidative enzyme activities, membrane lipid peroxidation and organic solute contents in mulungu seedlings under greenhouse conditions. The experiment was carried out at Instituto Federal Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Ceará (IFCE)-Campus Maracanaú, Ceará, Brazil. Under the presented experimental conditions, E. velutina plants showed higher growth variables (dry matter yield and leaf area) when submitted to daily irrigation of 50% of FC. Irrigation at 20% of FC caused a small water deficit. However, 80% of FC watering may have resulted in an excess of water. In general, despite the reduction in plant growth in plants irrigated at 20% of FC, the activities of the antioxidant enzymes did not differ substantially between treatments. In general, the lowest organic solute contents were detected in irrigations at 20 or 80% of FC.
Highlights
The northeastern region of Brazil has a semi-arid climate with irregular rainfall that is concentrated in a short period, resulting in a water shortage for the rest of the year
At 31 days after sowing (DAS), no significant differences were detected between treatments for superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity (Figure 1A)
Treatments with 20% (T20) and 80% (T80) of the field capacity showed a slight increase in SOD activity that differed significantly from the 50% treatment
Summary
The northeastern region of Brazil has a semi-arid climate with irregular rainfall that is concentrated in a short period, resulting in a water shortage for the rest of the year. The water deficit can cause damage to the plant by the closure of the stomata as a way to avoid excessive loss of water by evapotranspiration, which may cause a reduction in the photosynthetic rate due to the lower availability of CO2 This can cause a disturbance in the balance between reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and antioxidant defense, resulting in phytotoxicity (Cruz de Carvalho, 2008; Wang et al, 2013). With the lower availability of CO2 in the biochemical stage of photosynthesis, there is a reduction of NADPH oxidation in the Calvin-Benson cycle, which results in its low availability as NADP+ in the photochemical stage In this way, this process may cause the transfer of electrons from the reduced ferredoxin in photosystem I to O2, and, increase the production of ROS, promoting oxidative stress and damage to the plant (Ghobadi et al, 2013; Cerqueira et al, 2015)
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