Welcome to Eprints@IARI

Abstract

An experiment was conducted on ®ve wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) cultivars, C 306, PBW 175 (tolerant to water stress), DL 153-2 (moderately tolerant to water stress), HD 2428 and HD 2329 (recommended for irrigated con- ditions, susceptible to water stress), under pot culture conditions to study the e€ect of water stress on oxidative injury and antioxidant activity. Water stress signi®cantly decreased relative water content (RWC), ascorbic acid content and membrane stability, and increased hydrogen peroxide and malondialdehyde content, a measure of lipid peroxidation, and activities of antioxidant enzymes in all the genotypes at 7, 17 and 27 days after anthesis (DAA). Water stress tolerant genotypes C 306 and PBW 175, closely followed by DL 153-2, were superior to HD 2428 and HD 2329 in maintaining high RWC, ascorbic acid content and membrane stability and lower hydrogen peroxide content and lipid peroxidation (malondialdehyde content) under water stress at the three stages. The highest activities of glutathione reductase and catalase under water stress were observed in C 306, PBW 175 and DL 153-2 and the lowest activities in HD 2428 and HD 2329 at all the stages. Superoxide dismutase activity at all stages under irrigated conditions and at the ®rst and second stages under water stress conditions did not show signi®cant variation among the di€erent genotypes, but at the last stage under water stress the enzyme activity was highest in C 306, closely followed by PBW 175 and DL 153-2, and lowest in HD 2428 and HD 2329. It is apparent that water stress induces an increase in hydrogen peroxide content and consequently lipid peroxidation and membrane injury (reduced membrane stability). The degree of oxidative stress and antioxidant activity seems to be closely associ- ated with the tolerance/susceptibility of a genotype to water stress.