Journal of Environmental Biology

Effects of drought stress on growth, solute accumulation and membrane stability of leafy vegetable, huckleberry

(Solanum scabrum Mill.)

Dekoum Vincent Marius Assaha, Liyun Liu,Akihiro Ueda, Toshinori Nagaoka and Hirofumi Saneoka*

Graduate School of Biosphere Science, Hiroshima University. 1-4-4 Kagamiyama, Higashi-Hiroshima, 739-8528 Japan

*Corresponding Author E-mail : saneoka@hiroshima-u.ac.jp

Publication Data

Paper received:

18 September 2014

Revised received:

20 March 2015

Accepted:

05 June 2015

Abstract

The present study sought to investigate the factors implicated in growth impairment of huckleberry (a leafy vegetable) under water stress conditions. To achieve this, seedlings of plant were subjected to control, mild stress and severe stress conditions for 30 days. Plant growth, plant water relation, gas exchange, oxidative stress damage, electrolyte leakage rate, mineral content and osmolyte accumulation were measured. Water deficit markedly decreased leaf, stem and root growth. Leaf photosynthetic rate was tremendously reduced by decrease in stomatal conductance under stress conditions. Malondialdehyde (MDA) content markedly increased under mild (82%) and severe (131%) stress conditions, while electrolyte leakage rate (ELR) increased by 59% under mild stress and 3-fold under severe stress. Mineral content in leaf was high in stressed plants, while proline content markedly increased under mild stress (12-fold) and severe stress (15-fold), with corresponding decrease in osmotic potential at full turgor and an increase in osmotic adjustment. These results suggest that maintenance of high mineral content and osmotic adjustment constitute important adaptations in huckleberry under water deficit conditions and that growth depression under drought stress would be mainly caused by increased electrolyte leakage resulting from membrane damage induced by oxidative stress. ??  

 Key words

Electrolyte leakage rate, Lipid peroxidation, Mineral content, Osmotic adjustment, Oxidative stress

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