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Alteration in morpho-physiological attributes of Leymus chinensis (Trin.) Tzvelev by exogenous application of brassinolide under varying levels of drought stress
Lv, Jun; Zong, Xue-feng; Ahmad, Anjum Shakeel; Wu, Xiao; Wu, Chao; Li, Yun-peng & Wang, San-gen
Abstract
Climate change and prolong drought adversely affect the grassland ecosystem, is precarious environmental constraint
restricting plant growth and productivity. An experiment was conducted to alleviate adverse impacts of drought on
physiochemical and morphological attributes of Leymus chinensis (Trin.) Tzvelev using brassinosteroid (BR). Treatments
comprised well watered control (soil water contents 80%-85%) including Control (T0) and Control+ BR (TB0), moderate
drought stress (soil water contents 50%-55%) including (T1) and T1+ BR (TB1) and severe drought stress (soil water
contents 30%-35%) including (T2) and T2+ BR (TB2), they were laid out in completely randomized design with five
replicates. Drought stress significantly impaired growth, osmotic substances, photosynthetic rate, and other physiochemical
process. Moreover, perturbation in recorded attributes was aggravated by increasing drought severity from moderate
to severe. Nevertheless, BR application (0.1 mg L-1) improved plant weight (38.8%-46.2%), relative water content
(23.4%-29.1%), chlorophyll a (16.6%-56.5%), chlorophyll b (8.5%-16.9%), carotenoids (29.1%-67.3%), soluble sugars
(1.7%-29.4%), free amino acids (15.4%-19.4%), and proline content (45.2%-79.4%); while, lowered malondialdehyde
(34.8%-45.4%) at each level of drought. Likewise, BR application enhanced net photosynthetic rate (69.8%-165.1%),
transpiration rate (45.0%-146.9%), water utilization efficiency (9.3%-16.0%), carboxylation utilization efficiency (80%-250%), sunlight utilization efficiency (66.6%-158.8%) and improved chlorophyll fluorescence characteristics at each level
of drought, as compared to untreated controls. The adverse implications on physiochemical and morphological attributes
were aggravated with the enhancing severity of drought from control to severe drought. Yet, 0.1 mg L-1 exogenous BR
improved morphological and physiochemical attributes remarkably over respective controls and hence can be used to
improve growth of drought stressed L. chinensis.
Keywords
Brassinolide (BR); drought stress; Leymus chinensis; osmotic adjustment; photosynthetic performance.
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