Growth and metabolic responses of contrasting chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) genotypes to chilling stress at reproductive phase

Abstract

Chilling stress (\10°C) at reproductive phase of chickpea results in abortion of flowers and pods leading to poor yield. The metabolic causes associated with cold sensitivity of chickpea are not well understood. Hence, in the present study, we evaluated four chickpea genotypes (ICC 16348, ICC 16349, PBG1 and GPF2) having contrasting cold sensitivity for their reproductive growth and metabolism subjected to cold stress (average day temperature: 17.6°C; average night temperature: 4.9°C). Genotypes ICC 16348 and ICC 16349 showed flowering and set pods, while PBG1 and GPF2 failed to do so during the stress conditions indicating the former to be cold tolerant. The stress injury in the leaves such as increase in electrolyte leakage, decrease in chlorophyll content and relative leaf water content was significantly less in ICC 16348 and ICC 16349 genotypes. The analysis of carbohydrates indicated total sugars and starch to be present in greater content in ICC 16348 and ICC 16349 relative to PBG1 and GPF2 genotypes. The enzymes related to carbohydrate metabolism such as b-amylase, invertase and sucrose synthase showed significantly higher activity in the leaves of ICC 16348 and ICC 16349 compared to the other two genotypes. PBG1 and GPF2 genotypes experienced greater oxidative stress measured as malondialdehyde and hydrogen peroxide. ICCV 16348 and ICC 16349 possessed significantly higher levels of enzymatic (superoxide dismutase, catalase, ascorbate peroxidase) and non-enzymatic antioxidants (proline and ascorbic acid) relative to PBG1 and GPF2. Particularly, proline and ascorbic acid were markedly higher in cold-tolerant genotypes compared to the sensitive ones suggesting their deciding role in governing the cold tolerance.

Control of cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) tolerance to chilling stress—evaluating the role of ascorbic acid and glutathione

“…Many environmental stresses including chilling conditions can induce an increase of endogenous AsA (Wang et al, 2004). The AsA contents was more in tolerant to chilling stress chickpea (Cicer arietinum) genotypes after chilling at reproductive phase (Kumar et al, 2011a). Overexpression of SIGMEs (Solnaum lycopersicon GDP-Mannose 3 ,5 -epimerase) was reported to cause AsA accumulation with enhanced cold tolerance in tomato (Zhang et al, 2011).…”

Steviol glycosides targeted analysis in leaves of Stevia rebaudiana (Bertoni) from plants cultivated under chilling stress conditions

“…Stevia, in fact does not tolerate temperatures below 9 °C, and for its growth, 20-24°C are necessary. Severe chilling at reproductive stage ultimately reduces the yield of crops (Kumar et al, 2011, Singh & Rao, 2005.…”

Chilling tolerance of Cicer arietinum lines evaluated by photosystem II and antioxidant activities

“…Croser et al (2003) suggested that temperatures within the chilling range can limit the growth and viability of chickpea at all phenological stages, but chilling temperatures mostly damage the yield at the reproductive stage. Therefore, most studies on chickpea at chilling temperatures focused on reproductive development and yield (Clarke and Siddique, 2004;Nayyar et al, 2005b;Kumar et al, 2011). There are limited studies on the physiological approach to the vegetative stage of chilling-stressed chickpea cultivars and lines (Nayyar et al, 2005a;Turan and Ekmekçi, 2011).…”