Abstract
Drought stress is one of the most important environmental factors resulting in a variety of physiological and biochemical damages in plants. The objectives of this study were to (1) determine whether foliar application of ethionine (ETH) could effectively improve drought tolerance and (2) reveal how the foliar application of ETH alleviated drought stress from physiological and biochemical perspectives. Tall fescue (Festuca arundinacea cv. ‘Starfire’) was grown in a growth chamber and foliar applications were with 10 mL 250 mg·L−1 ETH every five days when plants were well-watered (control + ethionine) or unirrigated (drought + ethionine). Drought stress, in tall fescue, as expected, significantly decreased turf quality, relative leaf water content, photochemical efficiency, net photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance, intercellular CO2 concentration, and transpiration rate. Drought stress increased electrolyte leakage as well as the content of malondialdehyde, hydrogen peroxide, and superoxide anion. Foliar application of ETH effectively mitigated drought damages by enhancing root viability, activities of antioxidant enzymes (peroxidase, catalase, ascorbate peroxidase, and monohydroascorbate reductase), and increasing contents of soluble sugars (sucrose, glucose, and fructose) and isopentenyladenosine. The results from this study suggested that the mitigation of ETH application on drought stress could be attributed to the enhanced drought tolerance through sustaining root viability, protecting cellular membrane integrity, enhancing osmotic adjustment, and regulating endogenous hormones in tall fescue.
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The data analyzed during this study are available from the corresponding author on the reasonable request.
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Authors gratefully wish to thank the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31971771, 32171689) and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2019M651866) for the financial support.
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Funding for this study was provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31971771, 32171689) and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2019M651866).
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The study conception and design were contributed by ZY, JY, and LZ., JY, NF, TH, YB, and QL prepared the materials and performed the experiment. Data analysis was finished by JY and NF. The first draft of the manuscript was written by JY and ZY. All authors participated in the revision of the manuscript. JY and LZ provided the funding. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Yu, J., Fan, N., Hao, T. et al. Ethionine-mitigation of drought stress associated with changes in root viability, antioxidant defense, osmotic adjustment, and endogenous hormones in tall fescue. Plant Growth Regul 100, 119–132 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10725-022-00944-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10725-022-00944-4