Drought Stress Induces Morpho-physiological and Proteome Changes ofPandanus amaryllifolius

Abstract

Drought is one of the significant threats to the agricultural sector. However, there is limited knowledge on the plant response to drought stress and post-drought recovery. Pandanus amaryllifolius, a moderate drought-tolerant plant, is well known for its ability to survive in low-level soil moisture conditions. Understanding the molecular regulation of drought stress signaling in this plant could help guide the rational design of crop plants to counter this environmental challenge. This study aimed to determine the morpho-physiological, biochemical and protein changes of P. amaryllifolius in response to drought stress and during recovery. Drought significantly reduced leaf relative water content of P. amaryllifolius. In contrast, relative electrolyte leakage, proline and malondialdehyde contents, and the activities of antioxidant enzymes in the drought-treated and recovered samples were relatively higher than the well-watered sample. The protein changes between drought-stressed, well-watered, and recovered plants were evaluated using tandem mass tags (TMT)-based quantitative proteomics. Of the 1,415 differentially abundant proteins, 74 were significantly altered. The majority of proteins differing between them were related to carbon metabolism, photosynthesis, stress response, and antioxidant activity. This is the first study that reports the protein changes in response to drought stress in Pandanus. The data generated provide an insight into the drought-responsive mechanisms in P. amaryllifolius.

Water use efficiency, morpho-physiological and biochemical reactions of some bedding plants to drought stress

“…Also the existence of genetic diversity for tolerance to stress conditions has been frequently reported in other plant species (Hosseini Boldaji et al 2012;Zebarjadi et al 2012). In another study, drought stress effected the growth and antioxidant enzyme activities of Pandanus plants, drought stress has significantly affected the growth of Pandanus plants, such as LRWC, root-to-shoot ratio, shoot and root biomass, and REL, and led to an accumulation of ROS that damage cell membranes (Mohd Amnan, et al, 2021) In addition to morphological responses to drought stress, biochemical and physiological responses also play a significant role in improving the plant's status under stress conditions (Hura et al, 2022). Drought stress disturbs physiological and biochemical processes in plants, including cell membrane, disrupting transportation of solutes, photosynthesis rate, nutrient uptake, translocation, and causes electron leakage and excessive accumulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) (Nalina et al, 2021).…”