Exogenously Applied Ascorbic Acid-Mediated Changes in Osmoprotection and Oxidative Defense System Enhanced Water Stress Tolerance in Different Cultivars of Safflower (Carthamus tinctorious L.)

Abstract

The present study was conducted to examine the effect of exogenously applied ascorbic acid (AsA) on osmoprotectants and the oxidative defense system in four cultivars (16171, 16183, 16207 and 16246) of safflower under well-watered and water deficit conditions. Water stress (60% field capacity) significantly decreased the shoot and root fresh and dry weights, shoot and root lengths and chlorophyll contents in all four safflower cultivars, while it increased the leaf free proline, total phenolics, total soluble proteins, hydrogen peroxide content and activities of catalase, superoxide dismutase and peroxidase enzymes. Foliar-applied (100 mg L−1 and 150 mg L−1) ascorbic acid caused a marked improvement in shoot and root fresh and dry weights, plant height, chlorophyll and AsA contents as well as the activity of peroxidase (POD) enzyme particularly under water deficit conditions. It also increased the accumulation of leaf proline, total phenolics, total soluble proteins and glycine betaine (GB) content in all four cultivars. Exogenously applied AsA lowered the contents of MDA and H2O2, and the activities of CAT and SOD enzymes. Overall, exogenously applied AsA had a positive effect on the growth of safflower plants under water deficit conditions which could be related to AsA-induced enhanced osmoprotection and regulation of antioxidant defense system.

Biochemical Profiling for Antioxidant and Therapeutic Potential of Pakistani Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) Genetic Resource

“…It also helps to transport electrons and acts as an antioxidant by neutralizing ROS, restoring the antioxidant form of vitamin E (Beyer, 1994;Prasad and Upadhyay, 2011;McGill and Jaeschke, 2013). Ascorbic acid (AsA) is believed to be one of the most efficient antioxidants against different stresses in plants especially in chickpeas (Zarghamnejad et al, 2014;Sharma et al, 2019;Farooq et al, 2020). Out of 33 released varieties used in this study, five varieties revealed high ascorbic acid, 23 were grouped into the intermediate category, and six varieties showed low AsA.…”

Pure Organic Active Compounds Against Abiotic Stress: A Biostimulant Overview

“…For this reason, exogenous application of vitamin C proved to be effective in protecting several plant species against drought stress. The assays were carried out in the grass “tall fescue” ( Festuca arundinacea Schreb, Xu et al, 2015 ), in wheat ( T. aestivum L., Hafez and Gharib, 2016 ) and safflower ( Carthamus tinctorius L., Farooq et al, 2020 ). The findings of Aziz et al (2018) are also interesting, since they tested the effects of pure synthetic ascorbic acid and natural sweet orange juice extract as a natural source of vitamin C, in quinoa ( Chenopodium quinoa ) under drought stress.…”

Introgression of a novel cold and drought regulatory‐protein encoding CORA‐like gene, SbCDR, induced osmotic tolerance in transgenic tobacco

“…Many stress-responsive genes have been analysed under different abiotic stress conditions (Chaturvedi et al, 2012;Chaturvedi et al, 2014;Jha et al, 2011;Jha et al, 2013;Udawat et al, 2014), which are extensively involved to various extent of stress tolerance and also in different stress-responsive regulatory pathways (Farooq et al, 2020;Singh et al, 2014a;Tiwari et al, 2014). Plants have evolved different mechanisms to respond to these stress conditions by employing gene products, which are broadly classified into two categories.…”

“…Stress endurance, from the perception of stress‐signals to the activation of a complex downstream signalling pathway, is a prerequisite for plants to acclimatise under adverse stress conditions which is regulated at molecular, cellular and physiological levels by the differential gene expression (Mishra & Tanna, 2017; Raja et al, 2020). Many stress‐responsive genes have been analysed under different abiotic stress conditions (Chaturvedi et al, 2012; Chaturvedi et al, 2014; Jha et al, 2011; Jha et al, 2013; Udawat et al, 2014), which are extensively involved to various extent of stress tolerance and also in different stress‐responsive regulatory pathways (Farooq et al, 2020; Singh et al, 2014a; Tiwari et al, 2014). Plants have evolved different mechanisms to respond to these stress conditions by employing gene products, which are broadly classified into two categories.…”