The Effect of Salicylic Acid and L-arginine on Morpho-physiological Properties and Leaf Nutrients of Catharanthus roseus under Drought Stress

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

• Mohtaram Abaspour Esfaden ¹
• Sepedeh Kallaterjari ²
• Foad Fatehi ³

¹ Islamic Azadd University of Tehran

² Islamic Azad University of Tehran

³ Payame Noor university, Tehran

https://doi.org/10.22067/jhorts4.v33i3.73631

Abstract

Introduction: Catharanthus roseus is a beautiful herbaceous plant, belonging to Apocynaceae family, which is widely cultivated due to its unique and beautiful appearance. It is native to the Caribbean Basin and has historically been used to treat a wide assortment of diseases. European herbalists used this plant for different conditions such as headache and a folk remedy for diabetes. The effects of drought range from morphological to molecular levels and are evident at all phonological stages of plant growth at whatever stage the water deficit takes place.The limitation of water resources in our country is one of the important issues in landscape. However, we can alleviate the adverse effects of water stress with the use of some biological and non-biological stimulators. Under severe stress conditions, the antioxidant capacity may not be sufficient to minimize the harmful effects of oxidative damage. Therefore, synthesis of signal molecules in plants is an important step in our better understanding of how plants respond to environmental stresses. Several such signal molecules have been identified in plants such as jasmonic acid, ethylene and salicylic acid (SA). SA is considered as a hormone-like substance, which plays an important role in regulating a number of plants’ physiological processes including photosynthesis. Besides, L-arginine is an amino acid, which can alleviate the adverse effect of drought. Among the 21 proteinogenic amino acids, arginine has the highest nitrogen to carbon ratio, which makes it especially suitable as a storage form of organic nitrogen. Synthesis in chloroplasts via ornithine is apparently the only operational pathway to provide arginine in plants. Therefore, the present study was conducted to evaluate the effect of salicylic acid (SA) and L-arginine on morpho-physiological properties of C. roseus.
Materials and Methods: This experiment was carried out as a factorial with two factors including the foliar application at five levels (control, L-arginine 1.5 and 3 mM, SA 100 and 200 mg /L) and water stress at three levels (100, 70 and 40% field capacity (FC)) in a completely randomized design with three replications. Water use efficiency (WUE), the root/shoot weight, flower number, flower diameter, leaf chlorophyll content, peroxidase and superoxide dismutase activity of leaf, and leaf macronutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium) were measured.
Results and Discussion: The results showed that WUE in plants under moderate stress (70% FC) was higher than the plants in control and severe drought condition (40% FC). Root/shoot weight at no foliar application (control) × 40% FC and L-arginine 1.5 mM × 40% FC was higher than other treatments. The number of flowers in the treatments of 100% FC and 70% FC was more than 40% FC. The highest flower diameter was obtained from the L-arginine 3 mM. Total chlorophyll of L-arginine 3 mM was higher relative to other treatments. Drought stress significantly increased the activity of antioxidant enzymes. The lowest amount of phosphorus and nitrogen was observed at no foliar application ×40% FC. Therefore, according to the optimum application of water and amendment substrates, at 70% FC stress, L-arginine 3 mM and SA 100 mg /l increased the nitrogen and phosphorus content. Overall, L-arginine 3 mM and SA 100 mg /l increased the flower number and flower diameter significantly. Accumulation of these organic solutes either actively or passively helps the plants to retain water within cells and protect cellular compartments from injury caused by dehydration or maintain turgor pressure during water stress. Turgor maintenance plays an important role in drought tolerance of plants which may be due to its involvement in stomatal regulation and hence photosynthesis. Foliar application with arginine resulted in elevated proline levels and radiotracer experiments demonstrated that both 3H and 14C from arginine can be recovered as proline. The physiological relevance and the biochemical pathway of the conversion of arginine to proline in plants remain unclear. The most prominent hypothesis is that ornithine, derived from arginine catabolism, is converted by δOAT to GSA/P5C, which then serves as substrate for proline synthesis by P5CR. This model has been doubted, since Arabidopsis δOAT was found to be exclusively localized in mitochondria, while P5CR is localized in the cytosol.
Conclusion: The findings of our study showed that water stress can morphologically and physiological change C. roseus. There was no significant difference between 70% and 100% FC for root/shoot, flower number and flower diameter traits. So, we can reduce the use of water to 70% FC increased the flower number and flower diameter and can be used to alleviate the adverse impact of water stress.

Keywords

• Atharanthus roseu
• salicylic acid
• L-arginine
• Water stress

20.1001.1.20084730.1398.33.3.6.6

References

1- Álvarez S., and Sanchez-Blanco M.J. 2015. Comparison of individual and combined effects of salinity and deficit irrigation on physiological, nutritional and ornamental aspects of tolerance in Callistemon laevis plants. Journal of Plant Physiology 185: 65-74.

2- Anosheh H.P., Emam Y., Ashraf M., and Foolad M.R. 2012. Exogenous application of salicylic acid and chlormequat chloride alleviates negative effects of drought stress in wheat. Advanced Studies in Biology 4(11): 501-520.

3- Arif T. 2015. Salicylic acid as a peeling agent: a comprehensive review. Clinical, Cosmetic and Investigational Dermatology 8: 455.

4- Arnon D.I. 1949. Copper enzymes in isolated chloroplasts. Polyphenoloxidase in Beta vulgaris. Plant Physiology 24(1): 1.

5- Ashraf M.H.P.J.C., and Harris P.J.C. 2013. Photosynthesis under stressful environments: an overview. Photosynthetica 51(2): 163-190.

6- Asrar A.A., Abdel-Fattah G.M., and Elhindi K.M. 2012. Improving growth, flower yield, and water relations of snapdragon (Antirhinum majus L.) plants grown under well-watered and water-stress conditions using arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. Photosynthetica 50(2): 305-316.

7- Bailey-Serres J., and Mittler R. 2006. The roles of reactive oxygen species in plant cells. Plant Physiology 141: 311.

8- Basha D.M.R.A., and El-Aila H.I. 2015. Response of foliar spraying with amino acids and integrated use of nitrogen fertilizer on Radish (Raphanus sativus L.) plant. International Journal of ChemTech Research 8(11): 135-140.

9- Bremner J.M., and Mulvaney C.S. 1982. Nitrogen—Total. p. 595-624. In A.L. Page, R.H. Miller and D.R. Keeny (Eds.) Methods of soil analysis. Part 2. Chemical and microbiological properties. 2nd ed. American Society of Agronomy and Soil Science Society of America, Madison. .

10- Carrow R.N. 1996. Drought resistance aspects of turfgrasses in the southeast: Root-shoot responses. Crop Science 36(3): 687-694.

11- Chakraborty U., and Pradhan D. 2011. High temperature-induced oxidative stress in Lens culinaris, role of antioxidants and amelioration of stress by chemical pre-treatments. Journal of Plant Interactions 6(1): 43-52.

12- Chandra A., and Dubey A. 2010. Effect of ploidy levels on the activities of Δ1-pyrroline-5-carboxylate synthetase, superoxide dismutase and peroxidase in Cenchrus species grown under drought stress. Plant Physiology and Biochemistry 48(1): 27-34.

13- Chapman H.D., and Pratt P.F. 1962. Methods of analysis for soils, plants and waters. Soil Science 93(1): 68.

14- Dinkeloo K., Boyd S., and Pilot G. 2018. Update on amino acid transporter functions and on possible amino acid sensing mechanisms in plants. Seminars in cell & developmental biology 74:105-113.

15- El-Tayeb M.A. 2005. Response of barley grains to the interactive e. ect of salinity and salicylic acid. Plant Growth Regulation 45(3): 215-224.

16- Eraslan F., Inal A., Pilbeam D.J., and Gunes A .2008. Interactive effects of salicylic acid and silicon on oxidative damage and antioxidant activity in spinach (Spinacia oleracea L. cv. Matador) grown under boron toxicity and salinity. Plant Growth Regulation 55(3): 207.

17- Fazel F., Gheysari M., Mohammadian M., and Etemadi. 2015. Effect of Maximum Allowable Depletion on Irrigation Use and Plant Parameters of Grass under Subsurface Drip Irrigation Management. Sciences and engineering of Irrigation 1(40): 155-165.

18- Gazimonas M., Banchshafiee B., Hajsaiedhadi M.R., and Darzi M.T. 2013. The effects of vermicompost and nitrogen on quantity and quality of Matricaria chamomilla. Medicinal and Aromatic Plant Research 29(2): 269-280.

19- Giannopolitis C.N., and Ries S.K. 1977. Superoxide dismutases: I. Occurrence in higher plants. Plant Physiology 59(2): 309-314.

20- Gu J., Yin X., Stomph T.J., Wang H., and Struik P.C. 2012. Physiological basis of genetic variation in leaf photosynthesis among rice (Oryza sativa L.) introgression lines under drought and well-watered conditions. Journal of Experimental Botany 63(14): 5137-5153.

21- Gunes A., Inal A., Alpaslan M., Eraslan F., Bagci E. G., and Cicek N. 2007. Salicylic acid induced changes on some physiological parameters symptomatic for oxidative stress and mineral nutrition in maize (Zea mays L.) grown under salinity. Journal of Plant Physiology 164(6): 728-736.

22- Hatamzadeh A., Molaahmad Nalousi A., Ghasemnezhad M., and Biglouei M.H. 2015. The potential of nitric oxide for reducing oxidative damage induced by drought stress in two turfgrass species, creeping bentgrass and tall fescue. Grass and Forage Science 70(3): 538-548.

23- Hildebrandt T.M., Nesi A.N., Araújo W.L., and Braun H.P. 2015. Amino acid catabolism in plants. Molecular Plant 8(11): 1563-1579.

24- Hsiao T.C., and Xu L.K. 2000. Sensitivity of growth of roots versus leaves to drought stress: biophysical analysis and relation to water transport. Journal of Experimental Botany 51: 1595-1616.

25- Hussain K., Nawaz K., Majeed A., Khan F., Lin F., Ghani A., Raza G., Afghan S., Zia-ul-Hussnain S., and Ali K. 2010. Alleviation of salinity effects by exogenous applications of salicylic acid in pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum (L.) R. Br.) seedlings. African Journal of Biotechnology 9: 8602-8607.

26- Hussain M., Malik M.A., Farooq M., Ashraf M.Y., and Cheema M.A. 2008. Improving drought tolerance by exogenous application of glycinebetaine and salicylic acid in sunflower. Journal of Agronomy and Crop Science 194(3): 193-199.

27- Jaleel C.A., Gopi R., Manivannan P., Gomathinayagam M., Murali P.V., and Panneerselvam R. 2008. Soil applied propiconazole alleviates the impact of salinity on Catharanthus roseus by improving antioxidant status. Pesticide Biochemistry and Physiology 90(2): 135-139.

28- Kadayifci A., Tuylu G.İ., Ucar Y., and Cakmak B. 2005. Crop water use of onion (Allium cepa L.) in Turkey. Agricultural Water Management 72(1): 59-68.

29- Karimi N., Sadraddini S.A.A., Nazemi A., Farsadizadeh D., Hossienzadeh Dalir A., and Dehghani F. 2009. Effects of deficit irrigation on yield and growth of greenhouse cucumber. Soil and Sciences Journal 20(1): 15-25. (In Persian)

30- Korkmaz A., Uzunlu M., and Demirkiran A.R. 2007. Treatment with acetyl salicylic acid protects muskmelon seedlings against drought stress. Acta Physiologiae Plantarum 29(6): 503-508.

31- Kumar S., Imtiyaz M., Kumar A., and Singh R. 2007. Response of onion (Allium cepa L.) to different levels of irrigation water. Agricultural Water Management 89(1-2): 161-166.

32- Lotfi R., Pessarakli M., Gharavi-Kouchebagh P and Khoshvaghti H. 2015. Physiological responses of Brassica napus to fulvic acid under drought stress: Chlorophyll a fluorescence and antioxidant enzyme activity. The Crop Journal 3(5): 434-439.

33- Mardani H., Baiat H., and Azizi M. 2011. The foliar application of salysilic acid on morphological and physiological properties of Catharanthus roseus L. under drought stress. Horticulture Journal 25(3): 320-336. (In Persian)

34- Merewitz E.B., Gianfagna T., and Huang B. 2010. Effects of SAG12-ipt and HSP18. 2-ipt expression on cytokinin production, root growth, and leaf senescence in creeping bentgrass exposed to drought stress. Journal of the American Society for Horticultural Science 135(3): 230-239.

35- Miura K., and Tada Y. 2014. Regulation of water, salinity, and cold stress responses by salicylic acid. Frontiers in Plant Science 5: 4.

36- Nayak B.S., and Pereira L.M.P. 2006. Catharanthus roseus flower extract has wound-healing activity in Sprague Dawley rats. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 6(1): 41.

37- Nemeth M., Janda T., Horvath E., Paldi E., and Szalai G. 2002. Exogenous salicylic acid increases polyamine content but may decrease drought tolerance in maize. Plant Science 162(4): 569-574.

38- Ngom B., Mamati E., Goudiaby M.F., Kimatu J., Sarr I., Diouf D., and Kane N.A. 2018. Methylation analysis revealed salicylic acid affects pearl millet defense through external cytosine DNA demethylation. Journal of Plant Interactions 13(1): 288-293.

39- Olsen S.R., Sommers L.E., and Page A.L. 1982. Methods of soil analysis. Part 2. Chemical and microbiological properties of Phosphorus. ASA Monograph 9: 403-430.

40- Omidbeigi R. 2007. Production and processing of medicinal plants. 2nd ed.. Astane Ghodse Razavi, Mashhad, P347. (In Persian)

41- Pan Y., Wu L.J., and Yu Z.L. 2006. Effect of salt and drought stress on antioxidant enzymes activities and SOD isoenzymes of liquorice (Glycyrrhiza uralensis Fisch). Plant Growth Regulation 49(2-3): 157-165.

42- Polle A. 1997. Eiblmeier M., Sheppard L, Murray M. Responses of antioxidative enzymes to elevated CO2 in leaves of Beech (Fagus Sylvatica L.) seedlings grown under a range of nutrient regimes. Plant Cell Environ, 20: 1317–21.

43- Porcel R., and Ruiz-Lozano J.M. 2004. Arbuscular mycorrhizal influence on leaf water potential, solute accumulation, and oxidative stress in soybean plants subjected to drought stress. Journal of Experimental Botany 55(403): 1743-1750.

44- Rahimi A., Jahanbin S., Salehi A., and Farajee H. 2016. Changes in content of chlorophyll, carotenoids, phosphorus and relative water content of medicinal plant of Borage (Borago officinalis L.) under the influence of mycorrhizal fungi and drought stress. Journal of Biological Sciences 17: 28-34.

45- Revilla P., Fernandez V., Álvarez-Iglesias L., Medina E. T., and Cavero J. 2016. Leaf physico-chemical and physiological properties of maize (Zea mays L.) populations from different origins. Plant Physiology and Biochemistry 107: 319-325.

46- Sotiropoulos T.E., Dimassi K.N., and Therios I.N. 2005. Effects of L-arginine and L-cysteine on growth, and chlorophyll and mineral contents of shoots of the apple rootstock EM 26 cultured in vitro. Biologia Plantarum 49(3): 443-445.

47- Toscano S., Scuderi D., Giuffrida F., and Romano D. 2014. Responses of Mediterranean ornamental shrubs to drought stress and recovery. Scientia Horticulturae 178: 145-153.

48- Wang W.B., Kim Y.H., Lee H.S., Kim K.Y., Deng X.P., and Kwak S.S. 2009. Analysis of antioxidant enzyme activity during germination of alfalfa under salt and drought stresses. Plant Physiology and Biochemistry 47(7): 570-577.

49- Wills R., and Li Y. 2016. Use of arginine to inhibit browning on fresh cut apple and lettuce. Postharvest Biology and Technology 113: 66-68.

50- Zhang A., Jiang M., Zhang J., Ding H., Xu S., Hu X., and Tan M. 2007. Nitric oxide induced by hydrogen peroxide mediates abscisic acid‐induced activation of the mitogen‐activated protein kinase cascade involved in antioxidant defense in maize leaves. New Phytologist 175(1): 36-50.