Cold Stress Injury during the Pod‐Filling Phase in Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.): Effects on Quantitative and Qualitative Components of Seeds

Abstract

Chilling stress (<10 °C) is detrimental for chickpea, especially at the reproductive phase and leads to abortion of flowers, pods and impaired seed filling, causing severe reduction in yield. The information on the effects of low temperature during different pod‐filling stages on quality and quantity of developing seeds is lacking in chickpea and hence this study. In this study, chickpea plants growing under warm conditions of the glasshouse were subjected to cold conditions of the field at the two stages, (a) early pod‐filling and (b) late pod‐filling, and subsequently analysed for stress injury in terms of electrolyte leakage (EL), 2,3,5‐triphenyl tetrazolium chloride reduction, relative leaf water content and total chlorophyll content in the leaves of control and cold‐stressed plants. Cold stress caused elevation of EL but reduced all the other parameters. Sucrose content decreased significantly in the leaves of cold‐stressed plants. The differences between the effects of stress at two stages on the total plant dry weight were small and insignificant. The seed growth rate, seed fill duration, seed number, and average seed weight and size decreased greatly in the plants cold‐stressed at the late pod‐filling stage than those stressed at the early pod‐filling stage. Greater reduction was observed in starch, proteins, soluble sugars, fat, crude fibre and storage protein fractions in the seeds of the plants cold‐stressed at the late pod‐filling stage. This coincided with a larger decrease in sucrose content, the activities of sucrose synthase, invertase and starch synthase observed at this stage. The germination and growth potential were, however, inhibited to a greater extent in seeds of plants stressed at the early pod‐filling stage.

Mitigating heat and chilling stress by adjusting the sowing date of maize in the North China Plain

“…The average minimum temperature 5 days before maturity (11.3°C) with the LS treatment was significantly lower than the critical level of 13°C (Figure c). Low temperatures can decrease the photosynthetic and carbon exchange rates (Yan, Zhang, Tang, Su, & Sun, ; Ying, Lee, & Tollenaar, ), decrease the rate and duration of seed filling (Badu‐Apraku, Hunter, & Tollenaar, ; Daynard, Tanner, & Duncan, ; Kaur, Kumar, Nayyar, & Upadhyaya, ), and ultimately affect both yield quantity and quality (Nayyar, Bains, & Kumar, ; Yang & Zhang, ). Wang et al.…”

“…The average minimum temperature 5 days before maturity (11.3°C) with the LS treatment was significantly lower than the critical level of 13°C (Figure 4c). Low temperatures can decrease the photosynthetic and carbon exchange rates (Yan, Zhang, Tang, Su, & Sun, 2006;Ying, Lee, & Tollenaar, 2000), decrease the rate and duration of seed filling (Badu-Apraku, Hunter, & Tollenaar, 1983;Daynard, Tanner, & Duncan, 1971;Kaur, Kumar, Nayyar, & Upadhyaya, 2008), and ultimately affect both yield quantity and quality (Nayyar, Bains, & Kumar, 2005;Yang & Zhang, 2006). Wang et al (2016) indicated that when the sowing date was delayed from June 15 to July 5, daily mean temperature of 25 days after silking to maturity decreased from 20 to 16°C, and the senescence rate of LAI at late grain filling stage was significantly accelerated and the photosynthesis rate of July 5 sowing was decreased by 20% compared to the June 15 sowing treatment.…”

Grain Legumes

“…Notably, increasing temperature has opposite effects on these processes: It enhances seed growth rate but shortens the seed-filling period, thus buffering temperature effect on seed mass (pea- Poggio et al (2005), soybean- Egli et al (2005)). Chilling (< 10-15 °C) during seed development reduces accumulation of seed reserves such as starch, proteins, and minerals, resulting in smaller seed mass (chickpea- Kaur et al (2008), soybean-Egli et al (2005). Processes underlying these chilling effects may involve loss of chlorophyll and decreased photosynthesis, restricted availability and/or mobilization of assimilates as well as inhibition of enzymes related to the biosynthesis of storage compounds.…”

Effect of salinity stress on plants and its tolerance strategies: a review

“…Curtailing crop losses due to various environmental stressors is a major area of concern to cope with the increasing food requirements (Shanker and Venkateswarlu 2011). The major abiotic stresses like high salinity, drought, cold, and heat negatively influence the survival, biomass production, and yield of staple food crops up to 70 % (Vorasoot et al 2003;Kaur et al 2008;Ahmad et al 2010a;Thakur et al 2010;Mantri et al 2012;Ahmad et al 2012). The adverse effect of excess minerals such as Na + and/or Cl − on plant is called salt stress (Munns 2005).…”