PJB-2021-473
Salicylic acid associated modulation of physiological attributes of heat tolerant and heat sensitive tomato genotypes results in higher yield
Muhammad Rashid Shaheen, Rashid Hussain, Muhammad Rafay, Sahar Rashid, Muhammad Aurangzaib, Madiha Butt, Imran Khalid, Hafiz Nazar Faried and Muhammad Ahsan
Abstract
Heat stress is an important factor curtailing yield in summer crops, particularly in semi-arid and plains having a sub-tropical climate of the globe. It not only lowers the yield but also results in a squeezed growing season because of suppressed reproductive growth and hastened maturity. An experiment was designed under field conditions to study the physiological and biochemical changes in various tomato genotypes owing to the heat stress. Tomato seedlings were raised in nursery on 15 February, 01 March and 15 March. One-month old seedlings were transplanted in the field on 15 March, 01 April and 15 April respectively. Furthermore, salicylic acid (SA) mediated modulation of the processes was also studied in relation to yield. The results revealed that SA enhanced photosynthesis, intrinsic water-use efficiency, and chlorophyll contents. Whereas, the transpiration rate was non-significant. Furthermore, significantly lowered electrolyte leakage, sub-stomatal conductance to CO2 and water, and the temperature of the leaf surface were observed. These significant variations resulted in increased trusses per plant, fruits per truss, fruits per plant, the average weight of fruit, and ultimately per plant yield. It was concluded that under field conditions salicylic acid increased the heat tolerance in tomato plants by altering the physiological processes. A more vibrant response was noted in heat-tolerant genotypes as compared to heat-sensitive ones. It was further confirmed that SA enhanced heat resistance to a certain level of stress (44ºC) and became lessened under extremely high temperature (≥ 47ºC) conditions
To Cite this article:
Shaheen, M.R., R. Hussain, M. Rafay, S. Rashid, M. Aurangzaib, M. Butt, I. Khalid, H.N. Faried and M. Ahsan. 2024. Salicylic acid associated modulation of physiological attributes of heat tolerant and heat sensitive tomato genotypes results in higher yield. Pak. J. Bot., 56(2): DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.30848/PJB2024-2(26)
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