Photosynthetica 2019, 57(2):512-520 | DOI: 10.32615/ps.2019.066
Effects of melatonin on photosynthesis and soybean seed growth during grain filling under drought stress
- Heilongjiang Bayi Agricultural University, College of Agriculture, Daqing, 163319 Heilongjiang, China
We studied the effects of melatonin on soybean photosynthesis and seed growth at different developmental stages under drought stress induced by polyethylene glycol in the growth medium. Experimental groups were supplied with a normal nutrient solution after seven days of continuous treatment; overall, five treatments were completed when the early maturity stage was reached. Under normal water supply, melatonin supplementation had no significant effect on the photosynthetic characteristics or soybean seed growth. However, drought stress reduced leaf relative water content, chlorophyll content, and relative photosynthetic gas-exchange parameters, while it increased a leaf content of osmoregulatory substances, antioxidant-related enzyme activities, and seed growth-related indicators. Compared to the drought-stressed group, the melatonin treatment under drought stress improved the above indicators; specifically, melatonin effectively increased the photosynthetic rate, 100-seed mass, and total seed mass per plant. All the effects were most significant during the first seven days after the early seed-filling stage.
Keywords: catalase; malondialdehyde; proline; superoxide dismutase; water-use efficiency.
Received: July 5, 2018; Accepted: November 30, 2018; Prepublished online: April 16, 2019; Published: May 16, 2019Show citation
ACS | AIP | APA | ASA | Harvard | Chicago | IEEE | ISO690 | MLA | NLM | Turabian | Vancouver |
References
- Arora R., Wisniewski M.E.: Cold acclimation in genetically related (sibling) deciduous and evergreen peach. II. A 60-kDa bark protein in cold-acclimated tissue of peach is heat- stable and related to the dehydrin family of proteins. - Plant Physiol. 105: 95-101, 1994. Go to original source...
- Beauchamp C.O., Fridovich I.: Isozymes of superoxide dismutase from wheat germ. - BBA-Protein Struct. M. 317: 50-64, 1973.
- Chen Q., Qi W.B., Reiter R.J. et al.: Exogenously applied melatonin stimulates root growth and raises endogenous indoleacetic acid in roots of etiolated seedlings of Brassica juncea. - J. Plant Physiol. 166: 324-328, 2009. Go to original source...
- Dai A.: Increasing drought under global warming in observations and models. - Nat. Clim. Change 3: 52-58, 2013. Go to original source...
- de Souza T.C., Magalhães P.C., de Castro E.M. et al.: ABA application to maize hybrids contrasting for drought tolerance: Changes in water parameters and in antioxidant enzyme activity. - Plant Growth Regul. 73: 205-217, 2014. Go to original source...
- Dionisio-Sese M.L., Tobita S.: Antioxidant responses of rice seedlings to salinity stress. - Plant Sci. 135: 1-9, 1998. Go to original source...
- Fairbairn N.J.: A modified anthrone reagent. - Chem. Ind. 4: 86, 1953.
- Foyer C.H., Lam H.M., Nguyen H.T. et al.: Neglecting legumes has compromised human health and sustainable food pro-duction. - Nat. Plants 2: 16112, 2016. Go to original source...
- Fuganti-Pagliarini R., Ferreira L.C., Rodrigues F.A. et al.: Characterization of soybean genetically modified for drought tolerance in field conditions. - Front. Plant Sci. 8: 448-463, 2017. Go to original source...
- Gao H., Zhang Z.K., Chai H.K. et al.: Melatonin treatment delays postharvest senescence and regulates reactive oxygen species metabolism in peach fruit. - Postharvest Biol. Tec. 118: 103-110, 2016. Go to original source...
- Getachew M.: Influence of soil water deficit and phosphorus application on phosphorus uptake and yield of soybean (Gly-cine max L.) at Dejen, North-West Ethiopia. - Am. J. Plant Sci. 5: 1889-1906, 2014. Go to original source...
- Gong H., Zhu X., Chen K. et al.: Silicon alleviates oxidative damage of wheat plants in pots under drought. - Plant Sci. 169: 313-321, 2005. Go to original source...
- Hamurcu M., Sekmen A.H., Turkan I. et al.: Induced anti-oxidant activity in soybean alleviates oxidative stress under moderate boron toxicity. - Plant Growth Regul. 70: 217-226, 2013. Go to original source...
- Herridge D.F.: Carbon and Nitrogen Nutrition of Two Annual Legumes. PhD thesis. University of Western Australia, Perth 1977.
- Ke D., Sun G.C., Wang Z.X.: Effects of superoxide radicals on ACC synthase activity in chilling-stressed etiolated mungbean seedlings. - Plant Growth Regul. 51: 83-91, 2007. Go to original source...
- Kumar G.N.M., Knowles N.R.: Changes in lipid peroxidation and lipolytic and free-radical scavenging enzyme activities during aging and sprouting of potato (Solanum tuberosum) seed-tubers. - Plant Physiol. 102: 115-124, 1993. Go to original source...
- Lei Q., Wang L., Tan D.X. et al.: Identification of genes for melatonin synthetic enzymes in 'Red Fuji' apple (Malus domestica Borkh. cv. Red) and their expression and melatonin production during fruit development. - J. Pineal Res. 55: 443-451, 2013. Go to original source...
- Li C., Wang P., Wei Z. et al.: The mitigation effects of exogenous melatonin on salinity-induced stress in Malus hupehensis. - J. Pineal Res. 53: 298-306, 2012. Go to original source...
- Liu J.L., Wang W.X., Wang L.Y., Sun Y.: Exogenous melatonin improves seedling health index and drought tolerance in tomato. - Plant Growth Regul. 77: 317-326, 2015. Go to original source...
- Manavalan L.P., Guttikonda S.K., Tran L.S., Nguyen H.T.: Physiological and molecular approaches to improve drought resistance in soybean. - Plant Cell Physiol. 50: 1260-1276, 2009. Go to original source...
- Meng J.F., Xu T.F., Wang Z.Z. et al.: The ameliorative effects of exogenous melatonin on grape cuttings under water-deficient stress: Antioxidant metabolites, leaf anatomy, and chloroplast morphology. - J. Pineal Res. 57: 200-212, 2014. Go to original source...
- Nakano Y., Asada K.: Hydrogen peroxide is scavenged by ascor-bate-specific peroxidase in spinach chloroplasts. - Plant Cell Physiol. 22: 867-880, 1981.
- Nazar R., Umar S., Khan N.A., Sareer O.: Salicylic acid sup-plementation improves photosynthesis and growth in mustard through changes in proline accumulation and ethylene formation under drought stress. - S. Afr. J. Bot. 98: 84-94, 2015. Go to original source...
- Ommen O.E., Donnelly A., Vanhoutvin S. et al.: Chlorophyll content of spring wheat flag leaves grown under elevated CO2 concentrations and other environmental stresses within the ESPACE-wheat project. - Eur. J. Agron. 10: 197-203, 1999. Go to original source...
- Rad R.N., Kadir M.A., Jaafar H.Z.E., Gement D.C.: Physiological and biochemical relationship under drought stress in wheat (Triticum aestivum). - Afr. J. Biotechnol. 11: 1574-1578, 2012.
- Rao M.V., Paliyath G., Ormrod D.P.: Ultraviolet-B- and ozone-induced biochemical changes in antioxidant enzymes of Arabidopsis thaliana. - Plant Physiol. 110: 125-136, 1996. Go to original source...
- Schmutz J., Cannon S.B., Schlueter J. et al.: Genome sequence of the palaeopolyploid soybean. - Nature 463: 178-183, 2010. Go to original source...
- Shi H., Reiter R.J., Tan D.X., Chan Z.: INDOLE-3-ACETIC ACID INDUCIBLE 17 positively modulates natural leaf senescence through melatonin-mediated pathway in Arabi-dopsis. - J. Pineal Res. 58: 26-33, 2015. Go to original source...
- Specht J.E., Hume D.J., Kumudini S.V.: Soybean yield potential - A genetic and physiological perspective. - Crop Sci. 39: 1560-1570, 1999. Go to original source...
- Sun Q., Zhang N., Wang J. et al.: Melatonin promotes ripening and improves quality of tomato fruit during postharvest life. - J. Exp. Bot. 66: 657-668, 2014.
- Takahashi. S., Murata. N.: How do environmental stresses ac-celerate photoinhibition? - Trends Plant Sci. 13: 178-182, 2008. Go to original source...
- Tóth S.Z., Nagy V., Puthur J.T. et al.: The physiological role of ascorbate as photosystem II electron donor: Protection against photoinactivation in heat-stressed leaves. - Plant Physiol. 156: 382-392, 2011. Go to original source...
- Wang L.Y., Liu J.L., Wang W.X., Sun Y.: Exogenous melatonin improves growth and photosynthetic capacity of cucumber under salinity-induced stress. - Photosynthetica 54: 19-27, 2016. Go to original source...
- Wang P., Sun X., Li C. et al.: Long-term exogenous application of melatonin delays drought-induced leaf senescence in apple. -J. Pineal Res. 54: 292-302, 2013. Go to original source...
- Wei W., Li Q.T., Chu Y.N. et al.: Melatonin enhances plant growth and abiotic stress tolerance in soybean plants. - J. Exp. Bot. 66: 695-707, 2014.
- Westgate M.E., Peterson C.M.: Flower and pod development in water deficient soybean. - J. Exp. Bot. 258: 109-117, 1993. Go to original source...
- Ye J., Wang S.W., Deng X.P. et al.: Melatonin increased maize (Zea mays L.) seedling drought tolerance by alleviating drought-induced photosynthetic inhibition and oxidative damage. - Acta Physiol. Plant. 38: 48, 2016. Go to original source...
- Zhang N., Zhao B., Zhang H.J. et al.: Melatonin promotes water-stress tolerance, lateral root formation, and seed germination in cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.). - J. Pineal Res. 54: 15-23, 2013. Go to original source...
- Zhang S.Y., Zhang G.C., Gu S.Y. et al.: Critical responses of photosynthetic efficiency of goldspur apple tree to soil water variation in semiarid loess hilly area. - Photosynthetica 48: 589-595, 2010. Go to original source...