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Ascorbic Acid Alleviates Water Stress in Young Peach Trees and Improves Their Performance after Rewatering
- Source :
- Frontiers in Plant Science, Vol 8 (2017), Frontiers in Plant Science
- Publication Year :
- 2017
- Publisher :
- Frontiers Media SA, 2017.
-
Abstract
- Exogenous application of biochemicals has been found to improve water stress tolerance in herbaceous crops but there are limited studies on deciduous fruit trees. The goal of this research was to study if ascorbic acid applications could improve physiological mechanisms associated with water stress tolerance in young fruit trees. Ascorbic acid was foliarly applied at a concentration of 250 ppm to water-stressed and well-watered peach trees (control) of two cultivars (‘Scarletprince’ and ‘CaroTiger’). Trees received either one or two applications, and one week after the second application all trees were rewatered to field capacity. Upon rewatering, CO2 assimilation and stomatal conductance of water-stressed ‘Scarletprince’ trees sprayed with ascorbic acid (one or two applications) were similar to those of well-irrigated trees, but water-stressed trees that had not received ascorbic acid did not recover photosynthetical functions. Also, water status in sprayed water-stressed ‘Scarletprince’ trees was improved to values similar to control trees. On the other hand, water-stressed ‘CaroTiger’ trees needed two applications of ascorbic acid to reach values of CO2 assimilation similar to control trees but these applications did not improve their water status. In general terms, different response mechanisms to cope with water stress in presence of ascorbic acid were found in each cultivar, with ‘Scarletprince’ trees preferentially using proline as compatible solute and ‘CaroTiger’ trees relying on stomatal regulation. The application of ascorbic acid reduced cell membrane damage and increased catalase activity in water-stressed trees of both cultivars. These results suggest that foliar applications of ascorbic acid could be used as a management practice for improving water stress tolerance of young trees under suboptimal water regimes.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
0301 basic medicine
Stomatal conductance
gas exchange
Plant Science
lcsh:Plant culture
01 natural sciences
Field capacity
03 medical and health sciences
biochemicals
Botany
lcsh:SB1-1110
Proline
Cultivar
Original Research
water deficit
biology
food and beverages
rewatering
lipid peroxidation
Herbaceous plant
Ascorbic acid
Horticulture
030104 developmental biology
Deciduous
Catalase
biology.protein
water relations
010606 plant biology & botany
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 1664462X
- Volume :
- 8
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Frontiers in Plant Science
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....d5e8e3536cd78058c09abda37a334898