Foliar Application of Melatonin Alleviates the Deleterious Effects of Drought on the Three Most Cultivated Capsicum Species in Africa
Signaling molecules such as melatonin can modulate drought, which continues to be a serious threat to plant productivity across the world. Capsicum is an economically important crop valued for its piquancy and nutritional content, but is quite sensitive to drought. This study investigated the effect...
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Published in | Gesunde Pflanzen Vol. 75; no. 1; pp. 139 - 149 |
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Main Authors | , , , , , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
Berlin/Heidelberg
Springer Berlin Heidelberg
01.02.2023
Springer Nature B.V |
Subjects | |
Online Access | Get full text |
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Summary: | Signaling molecules such as melatonin can modulate drought, which continues to be a serious threat to plant productivity across the world.
Capsicum
is an economically important crop valued for its piquancy and nutritional content, but is quite sensitive to drought. This study investigated the effect of two levels of foliar application of melatonin (0 and 50 μM) on growth parameters, pigment accumulation, and osmolyte and inorganic ion content of three
Capsicum
species (
C. frutesence, C. chinense,
and
C. annum
) under well-watered as well as mild and severe drought conditions. Drought exerted negative effects on growth and development of the
Capsicum
spp., as indicated by changes in height, decreased leaf area, biomass, and photosynthetic pigment concentrations. Drought strongly decreased chlorophyll a, b, and carotenoid content, but increased root biomass, total soluble sugar, and proline concentrations of
Capsicum
compared to well-watered plants. In
C. frutesence,
severe drought significantly enhanced Na
+
and SO
4
2−
, while mild drought increased Ca
2+
and SO
4
2−
. Mild and severe drought increased Na
+
, decreased K
+
and Ca
2+
, and had no significant effects on Cl
−
and SO
4
2−
in
C. chinense
and
C. annum.
Foliar application of melatonin had positive but varying effects on
Capsicum
, as indicated by differences in growth, photosynthetic pigments, and ion accumulation. These findings pointed to beneficial effects of foliar application of melatonin in facilitating and improving drought tolerance of
Capsicum
via increased osmolyte accumulation, pigments, and total concentration of inorganic ions under drought conditions. |
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ISSN: | 0367-4223 1439-0345 |
DOI: | 10.1007/s10343-022-00685-4 |