PJB-2019-668
Assessment of secondary metabolism involvement in water stress tolerance of quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) subjected to varying water regimes
Hira Naz
Abstract
The most prevalent problem which directly affects the plant growth as well as yield is deficiency of water. That’s why in the present study, we examined a new stress resistant crop named as quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.), has the maximum potential to cope with various environmental stresses such as temperature and drought, usually it is said as the mother of grains. To examine the quinoa’s potential under varying [100%, 60%, 40% and 20% field capacity (FC)] water regimes, a pot experiment was conducted. For this purpose, seeds of four different cultivars (V1, V2, V7 and V9) were collected to check their potential against different water regimes. Germination was completed within one week and allowed seedling to grow under natural environmental conditions. Fifteen days seedlings were subjected to different levels of irrigation along with control (100% FC). The required water stress levels were maintained after 15 days. Then, drought stress maintained up to three weeks and data were collected for growth and various physio-biochemical attributes. Results indicated that under water deficit conditions, growth parameters such as shoot fresh and dry weights, root fresh and dry weights, chlorophyll and relative water contents (RWC), were significantly declined while H2O2, MDA, proline and sugars were increased in all quinoa cultivars. It is concluded that of all four quinoa cultivars, cv. V9 has the ability to cope with severe drought stress so it is considered as more drought tolerant and cv. V7 considered as drought sensitive particularly on the basis of plant growth.
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