Desert wheatgrass (Agropyron desertorum L.), tall wheatgrass (Agropyron elongatum L.), and crested wheatgrass (Agropyron cristatum L.) are native cool-season grass species that exhibit potential as a low-input turfgrass. An increased understanding of the biochemical and physiological responses of wheatgrass species and genotypes to salt stress conditions is important for developing genotypes with enhanced tolerance to salinity. The objective of this study was to characterize the physiological and antioxidative properties in 20 Iranian wheatgrass genotypes and to observe their responses to salinity stress during seed germination and seedling growth stage. A completely randomized factorial design was used with two types of factors, four levels of salinity (0, 50, 100, and 150 mm of NaCl), wheatgrass genotypes, and three replicates. In this experiment, the results demonstrated that salinity limits the germination of Iranian wheatgrass genotype seeds. The result of this study showed that among the wheatgrass genotypes, ‘AD1’, ‘AD3,’ ‘AC6’, and ‘FA’ took the shortest average time to germinate. Higher levels of final germination percentage (FGP) were observed in ‘AD2’, ‘AD3’, and ‘AE5’ under salinity stress than other genotypes throughout the experiment. During a prolonged period of study, ‘AD1’ had greater rate of germination (GR) than other genotypes. Out of the 21 genotypes, five genotypes (‘AD1’, ‘AD2’, ‘AD3’, ‘AE5’, and ‘FA’ genotypes) were in the range of “salinity tolerant genotypes” cluster. The ‘AD1’, ‘AD2’, ‘AD3’, ‘AE5’, and ‘FA’ genotypes generally performed better than other genotypes under salinity conditions, mainly through maintaining higher enzymatic activities such as superoxide dismutase (SOD) (EC 1.15.1.1), catalase (CAT) (EC 1.11.1.6), ascorbate peroxidase (APX) (EC 1.11.1.11) and peroxidase (POD) (EC 1.111.1.7), and nonenzymatic antioxidant activities by glutathione (GSH). The ‘AD1’, ‘AD2’, ‘AD3’, ‘AE5’, and ‘FA’ genotypes also had higher proline levels and more of total nonstructural carbohydrates (TNC) content, lower malondialdehyde (MDA) content, and lower hydrogen peroxide content (H2O2).

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Core Ideas A physiological mechanism for drought resistance in wheatgrass is proposed.Analysis of antioxidant enzyme activity during germination of wheatgrass under drought stress.Germination, osmotic adjustment, and antioxidant enzyme activities of wheatgrass under drought stress. Osmotic stress is one of the major environmental stresses that limits plant growth and seed germination in many areas of the world. The purpose of this research was to determine the degree and range of tolerance to osmotic stress in 20 wheatgrass ecotypes to identify ecotypes that might be potentially useful in arid and semiarid regions. We used a completely randomized factorial design with two factors, five levels of osmotic stress (0, –0.2, –0.5, –0.8, and –1.6 MPa), wheatgrass ecotypes, and three replicates. Our findings suggest that AD1, AD2, AD3, and AD5 ecotypes under osmotic stress have a higher level of final germination percentage (FGP) and rate of germination (GR), although they had a lower value for the average germination time (MGT) than other ecotypes during the experiment. These results suggested that AD1, AD2, AD3, AD5, AE5, AC6, and FA ecotypes exhibited a more effective protection, along with various mechanisms, and the mitigation of oxidative damages such as lipid peroxidation through mechanisms by which enzymatic and non‐enzymatic antioxidant activities were maintained at a higher level. Also, these ecotypes showed higher proline and total nonstructural carbohydrate contents (TNC), but lower malondialdehyde content (MDA) and H2O2 content than other ecotypes. A cluster analysis found these same six ecotypes (AD1, AD2, AD3, AD5, AE5, and AC6) and FA were clustered into a group of “osmotic‐ tolerant ecotypes”. This group might be potentially useful in arid and semiarid regions.

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Excessive heat or cold usually reduces the growth and quality of turfgrass. Genetic variations along with efficient biochemical and physiological mechanisms can diversify the tolerance to heat and cold. This study examined the effects of heat and cold stress on several biochemical and physiological parameters in Iranian tall fescue ecotypes (Festuca arundinacea L.). The control group of plants was maintained under optimal temperatures, whereas other groups were exposed to heat or cold in a growth chamber. The experiment was designed as a split plot, with stress treatments as the main plots and ecotypes as subplots. Physiologically and biochemically, the results revealed that three ecotypes (‘FA1’, ‘FA3’, and ‘FA5’) of the eight ecotypes examined in this study had better abilities to survive the simulated heat and cold stress. Better tolerance to heat and cold in the ‘FA1’, ‘FA3’, and ‘FA5’ ecotypes were probably due to higher levels of enzymatic and nonenzymatic antioxidant activities, maintenance of lower levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), higher levels of proline and total nonstructural carbohydrates (TNC), along with a more efficient osmotic adjustment. Diamine oxidase (DAO) and polyamine oxidase (PAO) activities increased significantly in ‘FA1’, ‘FA3’, and ‘FA5’ ecotypes. In summary, the strength of tolerance among ecotypes can be ranked as ‘FA1’ > ‘FA3’ > ‘FA5’ > ‘FA2’ > ‘FA6’ > ‘FA4’ > ‘FA7’ > ‘FA8’ under heat stress and ‘FA5’> ‘FA1’ > ‘FA3’ > ‘FA2’ > ‘FA4’ > ‘FA6’ > ‘FA7’ > ‘FA8’ under cold stress.