Modo de acesso: World Wide Web Inclui bibliografia 1. Agricultura 2. Meio Ambiente 3. Zootecnia 4. Ciências Agrárias I. REDIN, Ezequiel II. Título. CDD-630 Sônia Márcia Soares de Moura -CRB 6/1896 O conteúdo deste livro está licenciado sob a Licença de Atribuição Creative Commons 4.0. Com ela é permitido compartilhar o livro, devendo ser dado o devido crédito, não podendo ser utilizado para fins comerciais e nem ser alterada. O conteúdo dos artigos e seus dados em sua forma, correção e confiabilidade são de responsabilidade exclusiva dos seus respectivos autores www.poisson.com.br

Modo de acesso: World Wide Web Inclui bibliografia 1. Agricultura 2. Meio Ambiente 3. Zootecnia 4. Ciências Agrárias I. REDIN, Ezequiel II. Título. CDD-630 Sônia Márcia Soares de Moura -CRB 6/1896 O conteúdo deste livro está licenciado sob a Licença de Atribuição Creative Commons 4.0. Com ela é permitido compartilhar o livro, devendo ser dado o devido crédito, não podendo ser utilizado para fins comerciais e nem ser alterada. O conteúdo dos artigos e seus dados em sua forma, correção e confiabilidade são de responsabilidade exclusiva dos seus respectivos autores www.poisson.com.br

Water deficits have been considered the most restrictive environmental constraint on agricultural production worldwide. The current study aimed to investigate the role of silicon nutrition (Si) in activating defence mechanisms against drought damage in cowpea cultivars. The experiments were carried out in a randomized block design in a 2 × 2 × 4 factorial scheme, corresponding to two cowpea cultivars (BRS Novaera and BRS Tumucumaque), two water regimes (control well‐irrigated and water deficit) and four Si levels (0, 1.0, 2.0 and 4.0 mM). Plant growth and physiological and biochemical indicators were evaluated 28 days after drought imposition. Drought significantly reduced the photosynthetic pigments (Chl b and Chl total), gas exchanges (net photosynthesis, transpiration and stomatal conductance) and, consequently, all growth parameters of cowpea plants compared with well‐irrigated plants. However, Si at 2.0 mM activated critical responses in the BRS Novaera cultivar under drought, almost recovering plant performance and increasing drought tolerance. The beneficial Si‐induced effects were closely related to increased accumulation of Si, carbohydrates and free amino acids that likely promoted osmoregulation and were associated with an improved antioxidant system composed of proline and the activity of SOD, CAT and APX. These metabolic alterations were sufficient to enable enhanced net photosynthesis and plant growth. In conclusion, Si counteracts the deleterious effects of water deficit by efficiently inducing antioxidant defence and photosynthetic performance in Novaera plants. Si nutrition may constitute a potential strategy to cultivate cowpea plants in water‐scarce areas from arid and semiarid regions.

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