masoomeh amerian; alireza Zebarjadi; javaneh alsadat mehrabi
Abstract
Drought is one of the major constraints on agricultural productivity worldwide. Selenium plays an important role in plants tolerance to environmental stresses by increasing the levels of antioxidant enzymes and compounds. In order to investigate the effect of selenium on some growth and physiological ...
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Drought is one of the major constraints on agricultural productivity worldwide. Selenium plays an important role in plants tolerance to environmental stresses by increasing the levels of antioxidant enzymes and compounds. In order to investigate the effect of selenium on some growth and physiological characteristics of the Dragons head (Lallemantia iberica), a factorial experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with three replications in greenhouse conditions. Treatments included different levels of drought stress (100%, 75%, 50% and 25% field capacity) and different concentrations of selenium (0, 5 and 10 mg.L-1 sodium selenate). Foliar application of sodium selenate was performed in two stages. According to the results, drought stress had a negative effect on fresh and dry weight leaf and yield. But, under drought stress conditions, foliar selenium caused a significant increase in plant height (32.2 cm), proline (0.92 mg/g DW), and total phenol (0.82 mg/g DW) content. Increase in selenium concentration increased Dragons head physiological properties: relative leaf water content (65.10 %), total soluble sugar (2.55 mg/g DW), soluble protein (0.289 mg/g DW), and antioxidant activity (0.21 %). Concentration of 10 mg.L-1 sodium selenate had a positive effect on plant fresh weight and biological yield of Dragons head, which was probably associated with the antioxidant role of selenium. Under drought stress, selenium increased the amount of proline and total phenol, which increased these adaptation osmolytes and had an important role in the drought tolerance of Dragons head.