Morphological and biochemical response of different of spearmint (Mentha spicata L.) ecotypes to different soil moisture levels
Subject Areas : Tension
ghader rostami
1
,
Mohammad Moghaddam
2
*
,
Leila Samiei
3
1 - Department of Horticultural Science and Landscape Architecture, Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
2 - Department of Horticulture Science, Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran
3 - Department of Ornamental Plants, Research Center for Plant Sciences, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran
Keywords: Drought stress, ecotype, growth, photosynthetic pigments, proline, soluble sugar,
Abstract :
In order to investigate the drought tolerance in ecotypes of spearmint, a factorial pot experiment based on a completely randomized design with three replications was carried out in the research greenhouse of the Faculty of Agriculture in Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. The first factor was drought stress with two levels of soil moisture including 70% (moderate stress) and 50% (severe stress) and the second factor was 33 ecotypes of spearmint collected from different regions of Iran. The traits including plant height, number of main and secondary branches, leaf length and width, leaf and stem dry weight, photosynthetic pigments (chlorophyll a, b, total chlorophyll and carotenoids), soluble sugar and proline content were studied. The results showed that plant vegetative characters such as plant height, number of main and secondary branches, leaf length and width, leaf and stem dry weight significantly decreased in severe drought stress (50% field capacity) compared to mild stress (70% field capacity). Moreover, drought stress increased the content of soluble sugar, proline and carotenoids, and decreased the content of chlorophyll a, b and total chlorophyll. The highest resistance to severe stress was observed in 13 ecotypes, which included Sari, Mashhad, Bandar Abbas, Bowanat, Aliabad Katul, Semnan, Niriz, Birjand, Taibad, Hormozgan, Meshginshahr, Baft Kerman and Bushehr ecotypes. Generally speaking, it seems that these ecotypes can be used as a source of drought tolerance-related genes in breeding of high-yield genotypes for arid regions.