Abstract
Onion is the main condiment vegetable crop that is grown and consumed due to its rich nutraceutical properties. Globally, drought and salt stress are the major hurdles for onion growth and pose greater threat to the future crop growth. Numerous studies reported the response of vegetable crops with the acclimatization to fluctuating environmental conditions but data for onion appears to be limited on biochemical and gene expression changes. In this study, we investigated the response of seven onion cultivars from Turkey for biochemical and gene expression responses to drought and salt stresses under greenhouse conditions. There is limited data available on NCBI for onion genes; therefore, degenerate PCR approach was used to amplify the catalase (CAT) and photosystem (PSII) genes of onion to observe correlation between their activity with transcript levels. Results of biochemical attributes indicated that the cultivars Perama, Inci, and Seyhan performed better compared to other cultivars with the exposure to salt and drought stress. Additionally, these cultivars also accumulated higher transcript level of CAT gene and showed least decrease in the degradation of PSII mRNA. Overall, results revealed that the cultivars Perama, Inci, and Seyhan were tolerant, whereas the cultivars Elit and Hazar were grouped as sensitive to salt and drought stress conditions. Results of this study can be used for screening of tolerant and susceptible cultivars. Moreover, the tolerant cultivars Perama, Inci, and Seyhan can be used for future abiotic stress breeding programs.
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Data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article.
Abbreviations
- ANOVA:
-
Analysis of Variance
- APX:
-
Ascorbate Peroxidase
- bp:
-
Base pair
- C:
-
Control
- CAT:
-
Catalase
- cDNA:
-
Complementary DNA
- CRD:
-
Completely randomized design
- DEPC:
-
Diethyl pyrocarbonate
- DNA:
-
Deoxyribonucleic acid
- dNTPs:
-
Dinucleotide triphosphate
- DS:
-
Drought stress
- EDTA:
-
Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid
- FW:
-
Fresh Weight
- HCl:
-
Hydrogen chloride
- KCl:
-
Potassium chloride
- LB:
-
Lysogeny broth
- LSD:
-
Least significant difference
- MDA:
-
Malondialdehyde
- MgCl2 :
-
Magnesium chloride
- mRNA:
-
Messenger RNA
- NaCl:
-
Sodium chloride
- NBT:
-
Nitroblue tetrazolium
- NCBI:
-
National Center for Biotechnology Information
- PCA:
-
Principal component analysis
- PCR:
-
Polymerase chain reaction
- pH:
-
Potential for Hydrogen
- PRO:
-
Proline
- PSII:
-
Photosystem II
- qRT-PCR:
-
Real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction
- RNA:
-
Ribonucleic acid
- ROS:
-
Reactive oxygen species
- SAS:
-
Statistical Analysis Software
- SOD:
-
Superoxide Dismutase
- SS:
-
Salt stress
- TA:
-
Thymine and adenine
- TBA:
-
Thiobarbituric acid
- TCA:
-
Trichloroacetic acid
- UV:
-
Ultraviolet
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Acknowledgments
We acknowledge the Scientific Research Projects Unit (BAP) of Niğde Ömer Halisdemir University, Niğde, Turkey for providing funds for this study under Project No. TGT 2019/05–BAGEP. The author Usman Khalid Chaudhry acknowledges the Ayhan Sahenk Foundation for providing fellowship during his doctoral study. The authors would like to appreciate İbrahim Köken for his partial contribution.
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Scientific Research Projects Unit (BAP) of Nigde Omer Halisdemir University, Nigde, Turkey provided funds for this study under the Project No. TGT 2019/05–BAGEP.
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Study conception and design: UKC and ZNÖG. Acquisition of data: UKC. Analysis and interpretation of data: UKC and AFG. Drafting of manuscript: UKC and ZNÖG. Critical revision: AFG and ZNÖG.
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Supplementary Figure 1
Onion cultivars after 750 mM of salt stress and 20 days of drought stress treatment under greenhouse conditions. C, control; SS, salt stress; DS, drought stress. (PNG 124 kb)
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Chaudhry, U.K., Gökçe, Z.N.Ö. & Gökçe, A.F. Drought and salt stress effects on biochemical changes and gene expression of photosystem II and catalase genes in selected onion cultivars. Biologia 76, 3107–3121 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11756-021-00827-5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11756-021-00827-5