Abstract
Insufficient attention has been paid to the physiological responses of sesame to drought and it is unclear if exogenous plant growth regulators are beneficial to drought-stressed sesame. Thus, a field study was conducted on seven Sesamum indicum genotypes affected by two levels of irrigation (60 and 80% depletions in available soil water) and by foliar-applied salicylic acid (SA; 0 and 0.6 mM). Water deficit led to depressions in net photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance, leaf area index, chlorophyll a, b, and total chlorophyll contents, maximum quantum efficiency of PSII, and plant dry matter and seed yield, despite increases in carotenoid concentration, superoxide dismutase, catalase, peroxidase, and ascorbate peroxidase activities. SA was found beneficial in ameliorating the depressions in all of the above characteristics, indicating that it could be applied for lessening the harmful effects of the drought stress.
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Abbreviations
- APX:
-
ascorbate peroxidase
- ASW:
-
available soil water
- CAT:
-
catalase
- Car:
-
carotenoids
- Chl:
-
chlorophyll
- C i :
-
substomatal CO2 concentration
- F0 :
-
minimum fluorescence
- Fm :
-
maximum fluorescence
- Fv/Fm :
-
maximal quantum efficiency of PSII
- g s :
-
stomatal conductance to the CO2
- LAI:
-
leaf area index
- LSD:
-
least significant difference
- MSI:
-
membrane stability index
- NBT:
-
nitroblue tetrazolium
- OY:
-
oil yield
- PGRs:
-
plant growth regulators
- P N :
-
net photosynthetic rate
- POX:
-
peroxidase
- ROS:
-
reactive oxygen species
- SA:
-
salicylic acid
- SDM:
-
plant aboveground dry mass
- SOD:
-
superoxide dismutase
- SY:
-
seed yield
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Acknowledgements: The authors are indebted to the Isfahan University of Technology for the financial aid given for conducting this study.
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Yousefzadeh Najafabadi, M., Ehsanzadeh, P. Photosynthetic and antioxidative upregulation in drought-stressed sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) subjected to foliar-applied salicylic acid. Photosynthetica 55, 611–622 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11099-017-0673-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11099-017-0673-8