Abstract
Native grasses are important for the enhancement of landscape. Agropyron cristatum, A.intermedium, Festuca ovina, Festuca arundinaceae, Cynodon dactylon, Bromus inermis and B. confinis are the potential sources of low maintenance turfgrasses for semi-arid regions. This greenhouse study examined the interaction of four different levels of soil water contents with 75, 50, and 25% field capacity (FC) and non-irrigation on physiological and biochemical responses of each accession. Total carbohydrate and sucrose contents of F. arundinaceae were increased significantly under non-irrigated treatment but decreased in the other genotypes. Proline, hydrogen peroxide, and total ascorbate increased in all the species under drought. Also, with decreased soil water content, H2O2 content increased up to 50% in F. arundinaceae. Protein content of F. arundinacea increased significantly under drought stress compared to the control; however, it decreased in other genotypes. Ascorbate peroxidase activities were increased in Festuca sp. and decreased in A. cristatum. It was found that F. arundinacea was able to maintain higher relative water content level and osmotic potential in non-irrigated drought treatment than B. inermis and A. cristatum. It may be speculated that the observed drought stress tolerance was associated with the ability of accumulating compatible solutes and H2O2 signaling cascade. Also, the high activity of ascorbate peroxidase resulted in protection against oxidative damage. It seems that this mechanism worked better in F. arundinacea to be used as low maintenance turfgrass.
Similar content being viewed by others
Literature Cited
Ahuja, I., R.C.H.D. Vos, A.M. Bones, and R.D. Hall. 2010. Plant molecular stress responses face climate change. Trends Plant Sci. 15:664–674.
Ashraf, M. and M.R. Foolad. 2007. Roles of glycine betaine and proline in improving plant biotic stress resistance. Environ. Exp. Bot. 59:206–216.
Bandurska, H. and W. Jozwiak. 2010. A comparison of the effects of drought on proline accumulation and peroxidases activity in leaves of Festuca rubra L. and Lolium perenne L. Acta Soc. Bot. Pol. 79:111–116.
Bartels, D. and R. Sunkar. 2005. Drought and salt tolerance in plants. Crit. Rev. Plant Sci. 24:23–58.
Blum, A. 2005. Drought resistance, water-use efficiency, and yield potential are they compatible, dissonant, or mutually exclusive. Austral. J. Agric. Res. 56:1159–1168.
Bor, N.L. 1970. Gramineae-Fetuceae. In: K.H. Rechinger (ed.). Flora Iranica. Akademische Druck-u Verlagsanstalt, Graz, 70:450–452. (In German)
Bradford, M.M. 1976. A rapid and sensitive method for the quantitation of microgram quantities of protein utilizing the principle the protein-dye binding. Anal. Biochem. 72:248–254.
Chandler, P.M. and M. Robertson. 1994. Gene expression regulated by abscisic acid and its relation to stress tolerance. Annu. Rev. Plant Physiol. Mol. Biol. 45:113–141.
Change, B. and A.C. Maehly. 1955. Assay of catalases and peroxidase. Methods Enzymol. 2:764–775.
Chen, C. and M.B. Dickman. 2005. Proline suppresses apoptosis in the fungal pathogen Colletotrichum trifolii. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 102:3459–3464.
Choudhary, N.L., R.K. Sairam, and A. Tyagi. 2005. Expression of delta1-pyrroline-5-carboxylate synthetase gene during drought in rice (Oryza sativa L.). Indian J. Biochem. Biophys. 42:366–370.
Cizkova, H., J. Lukavska, K. Pribian, J. Kopecky, and H. Brabcova. 1996. Carbohydrate levels in rhizomes of Phragmites australis at an oligotrophic and eutrophic site: A preliminary study. Folia Geobot. Phytotax. 31:111–118.
DaCosta, M. and B.R. Huang. 2007. Changes in antioxidant enzyme activities and lipid peroxidation for bent grass species in response to drought stress. J. Am. Soc. Hortic. Sci. 132:319–326.
Dat, J.F., H. Lopez-Delgado, C.H. Foyer, and I.M. Scott. 1998. Parallel changes in H2O2 and catalase during thermotolerance induced by salicylic acid or heat acclimation in mustard seedlings. Plant Physiol. 116:1351–1357.
Dewey, D.R. and K.H. Asay. 1975. The creasted wheatgrasses of Iran. Crop Sci. 15:844–849.
Etemadi, N., B.E. Sayed-tabatabaei, Z. Zamani, K.H. Razmjoo, A. Khalighi, and H. Lessani. 2006. Evaluation of diversity among Cynodon dactylon (L.) Pers. Using RAPD markers. Intl. J. Agric. Biol. 8:198–202.
Evers, D., I. Lefe`vre, S. Legay, D. Lamoureux, J.F. Hausman, R.O. Rosales, M. Gutierrez, L.R. Tincopa, L. Hoffmann, M. Bonierbale, and R. Schafleitner. 2010. Identiflcation of drought-responsive compounds in potato through a combined transcriptomic and targeted metabolite approach. J. Exp. Bot. 61:2327–2343.
Fu, J.M and B.R. Huang. 2001. Involvment of antioxidants and lipid peroxidation in the adaptation of two cool-season grasses to localized drought stress. Environ. Exp. Bot. 45:105–114.
Griffith, O.W. 1980. Determination of glutathione disulphid using glutathione reductase and 2-vinylpyridine. Anal. Biochem. 106:207–212.
Halliwell, B., M. Clement, and L. Long. 2000. Hydrogen peroxide in the human body. FEBS. Lett. 486:10–13.
Harlan, J.R. and K.M. Rawal. 1970. Geographic distribution of the species of Cynodon L.C. Rich (Gramineae). East Afr. Agric. For. J. 36:220–226.
Huang, B. and J.W. Johnson. 1955. Root respiration and carbohydrate status of two wheat genotypes response to hypoxia. Ann. Bot. 75:427–432.
Jagtap, V. and S. Bhargava. 1995. Variation in antioxidant metabolism of drought tolerant and drought susceptible varieties of Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench. Exposed to high light, low water and high temperature stress. J. Plant Physiol. 145:195–197.
Jiang, Y. and B. Huang. 2002. Protein alternation in tall fescue in response to drought stress and abscisic acid. Crop Sci. 42:202–207.
Jiang, Y. and B.R. Huang. 2001. Drought heat stress injury to two cool-season turfgrasses in relation to antioxidant metabolism and lipid peroxidation. Crop Sci. 41:436–442.
Kiyosue, T., Y. Yoshiba, K. Yamaguchi-Shinozaki, and K. Shinozaki. 1996. A nuclear gene encoding mitochondrial proline dehydrogenase and enzyme involved in proline metabolism is up regulated by proline but down regulated by dehydration in Arabidopsis. Plant Cell 8:1323–1335.
Kumar, R. 2009. Role of naturally occurring osmolytes in protein folding and stability. Arch. Biochem. Biophys. 491:1–6.
Lee, D.H. and C.B. Lee. 2000. Chilling stress-induced changes of antioxidant enzymes in the leaves of cucumber: In gel enzyme activity assays. Plant Sci. 159:75–85.
Lugan, R., M.F. Niogret, L. Leport, J.P. Gue´gan, F. Larher, A. Savoure´, J. Kopka, and A. Bouchereau. 2010. Metabolome and water homeostasis analysis of Thellungiella salsuginea suggests that dehydration tolerance is a key response to osmotic stress in this halophyte. The Plant J. 64:215–229.
Martinez, J.P., J.F. Ledent, M. Bajji, J.M. Kient, and S. Lutts. 2003. Effect of water stress on growth, Na+ and K+ accumulation and water use efficiency in relation to osmotic adjustment in two populations of Atriplex halimus L. Plant Growth Regul. 41:63–73.
Miller, G., K. Schlauch, R. Tam, D. Cortes, M.A. Torres, V. Shulaev, J.L. Dangl, and R. Mittler. 2009. The plant NADPH oxidase RBOHD mediates rapid systemic signaling in response to diverse stimuli. Sci. Signal. 2:ra45.
Moller, I.M., P.E. Jensen, and A. Hansson. 2007. Oxidative modifications to cellular components in plants. Annu. Rev. Plant Biol. 58:459–481.
Mozaffarian, V. 1996. A dictionary of Iranian plant names, Farhang Moaser, Tehran., p. 671.
Munns, R., R.A. James, and A. Läuchli. 2006. Approaches to increasing the salt tolerance of wheat and other cereals. J. Exp. Bot. 57:1025–1043.
Nakano, Y. and K. Asada. 1981. Hydrogen peroxidase is scavenged by ascorbate specific peroxidase in spinach chloroplasts. Plant Cell Physiol. 22:867–880.
Neill, S., R. Desikanand, and J. Hancock. 2002. Hydrogen peroxide signaling. Curr. Opin. Plant Biol. 5:388–395.
Noctor, G., A.M. Arisi, L. Jouanin, K.J. Kunert, H. Rennenberg, and C.H. Foyer. 1998. Glutathione: biosynthesis, metabolism and relationship to stress tolerance explored in transformed plants. J. Exp. Bot. 49:623–647.
Pessarakli, M. 2011. Handbook of plant and crop stress. CRC Press, Tucson, AZ, USA.
Potters, G., L. De Gara, H. Asard, and N. Horemans. 2002. Ascorbate and glutathione: Guardians of the cell cycle, partners in crime? Plant Physiol. Biochem. 40:537–548.
Riccardi. F., P. Gazeau, D.V. Vienne, and M. Zivy. 1998. Protein changes in response to progressive water deficit in maize. Plant physiol. 117:1253–1263.
Roychoudhury, A., S. Basu, S.N. Sharker, and D.N. Sengupta. 2008. Comparative physiological and molecular responses of a common aromatic indica rice cultivar to high salinity with non-aromatic indica rice cultivars. Plant Cell Rep. 27:1395–1410.
Sanchez, D.H., M.R. Siahpoosh, U. Roessner, M. Udvardi, and J. Kopka. 2008. Plant metabolomics reveals conserved and divergent metabolic responses to salinity. Physiol. Plant. 132:209–219.
Shahba, M.A., Y.L. Qian, H.G. Hughes, A.J. Koski, and D. Christensen. 2003. Relationships of soluble carbohydrates and freeze tolerance in Saltgrass. Crop Sci. 43:2148–2153.
Shan, C. and Z. Liang. 2010. Jasmonic acid regulates ascorbat and glutathione metabolism in Agropyron cristatum leaves under water stress. Plant Sci. 178:130–139.
Smith, I.K., T.L. Vierheller, and C.A. Throne. 1988. Assay of glutathione reductase in crude tissue homogenates using 5, 5-dithiobis (2 nitrobenzoic acid). Annl. Biochem. 175:408–413.
Turner, N.C. and E. Begg. 1978. Responses of pasture plants to water deficits, p. 50–66. In: J.R. Wilson. (ed.). Plant relations in pastures. CSIRO. Melbourne.
Wang, X., H. Gao, Z. Wang, and J. Li. 2011. Molecular and genetic analysis of abiotic stress resistance of forage crops. Plants Environ. p. 272.
Yang, S.Q., G.X. Ren, G.H. Yang, Y.Z. Feng, and Q. Zhang. 2007. Effects of Water stress on osmoregulation substances and chlorophyll fluorescent parameter for forage grass.Acta Bot. Boreal-Occident Sin. 27:1826–1932.
Yang, Y., C. Han, Q. Liu, B. Lin, and J. Wang. 2008. Effect of drought and low light on growth and enzymatic antioxidant system of Picea zerata seedlings. Acta Physiol. Plant. 30:433–440.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Khoshkholghsima, N.A., Rohollahi, I. Evaluating biochemical response of some selected perennial grasses under drought stress in Iran. Hortic. Environ. Biotechnol. 56, 383–390 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13580-015-0010-8
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13580-015-0010-8