PJB-2024-1546
Polyethylene glycol-stimulated drought stress enhanced the biosynthesis of steviol glycosides in Stevia rebaudiana
Maqsood Khan, Abdul Mateen Khattak, Shakeel Ahmad, Shahid Akbar Khalil, Naveed Ahmad, Syed Aizaz Ali Shah, Sajid Ali, Yong-Sun Moon, Muhammad Hamayun and Abdulwahed Fahad Alrefaei
Abstract
Rapid propagation of commercially important species can be achieved through plant tissue culture techniques. It is gaining importance in breeding methods due to its speedy process. Also, various stress conditions can be provided through this process to study the adoptive mechanisms of different plant species to stress. Mild drought stress increases the production of some valuable plant compounds have medicinal importance. Stevia rabaudiana is an important medicinal plant. It contains steviol glycoside, which is a natural sweetening agent. It has zero calories and is considered about 300 times sweeter than table sugar. This plant has also famous for its antioxidant activity. Mild stress conditions increase the production of plant secondary metabolites. PEG is a compound used to induce drought stress in culture media under In vitro conditions. For this purpose, five levels of PEG-6000, i.e., control, 1%, 2%, 3%, and 4% (w/v), were used in the culture medium. Cultured jars were kept for 45 days, and then different traits were evaluated, such as shoot length, fresh and dry weight of shoot, the total number of leaves per plant, chlorophyll content, phenol, flavonoids, SOD, POD, CAT, APX, MDA, proline, itsantioxidant activity, steviol glycosides, number of roots, and root length. The morphological traits were highly affected by PEG concentration. We found that drought stress improved enzymatic activity, and the level of antioxidant enzymes, including SOD, POD, CAT, and APX, increased to a certain extent, but further increases in the stimulated drought stress declined it. Proline content and MDA level also increased in the drought stressed plants. Similarly, it increased biochemical compounds such as phenols and flavonoids and improved antioxidant activity. Furthermore, it was found that the steviol glycoside contents were also increased by stimulated drought stress. These results suggested that the biosynthesis of steviol glycoside can be enhanced by using stimulated drought stress as an elicitor
To Cite this article:
Khan, M., A.M. Khattak, S. Ahmad, S.A. Khalil, N. Ahmad, S.A.A. Shah, S. Ali, Y.S. Moon, M. Hamayun and A.F. Alrefaei. 2024. Polyethylene glycol-stimulated drought stress enhanced the biosynthesis of steviol glycosides in Stevia rebaudiana. Pak. J. Bot., 56(5): DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.30848/PJB2024-5(3)
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