Effect of drought stress on the expression pattern of genes involved in ABA biosynthesis in Desi-type chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.)

Abstract

Background: The behavior of Abscisic acid (ABA) as a stress phytohormone may be involved in mechanisms leading to tolerance and survival in adverse environmental conditions such as drought stress.

Methods: Here, we evaluated ABA-mediated responses at physio-biochemical and molecular levels in drought-stressed seedlings of two different Desi-type chickpea genotypes (10 as a tolerant genotype and 247 as a sensitive one).

Results: Under drought stress, two chickpea genotypes showed a decrease in their relative water content (RWC), and the intense decrease was related to the sensitive genotype (73.9%) in severe stress. Hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) and malondialdehyde (MDA) concomitant with the severity of stress increased in genotypes and the higher increase was in the sensitive genotype (5.8-fold and 3.43-fold, respectively). In the tolerant genotype, the enhanced accumulation of total phenolic content (1.75-fold) and radical scavenging action, based on 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl test (DPPH), (1.69-fold) were simultaneous with ABA accumulation (1.53-fold). In the tolerant genotype, transcriptional analysis presented upregulation of Zeaxanthin epoxidase (ZEP) (1.35-fold), 9-cis-epoxycarotenoid dioxygenase (NCED) (5.16-fold), and Abscisic aldehyde oxidase (AAO) (1.52-fold compared to control conditions) genes in severe stress in comparison with mild stress. The sensitive genotype had a declining trend in total chlorophyll (up to 70%) and carotenoid contents (36%). The main conclusion to be drawn from this investigation is that ABA with its regulatory effects can affect drought tolerance mechanisms to alleviate adverse effects of unsatisfactory environmental conditions.

Conclusions: In this paper, we tried to indicate that drought stress induces overexpression of genes triggering ABA-mediated drought responses simultaneously in two genotypes while more increment expression was related to the tolerant genotype. At first thought, it seems that the tolerant genotype compared to the sensitive genotype has a genetically inherent ability to cope with and drop adverse effects of drought stress through over-accumulation of ABA as drought.

Keywords: Chlorophyll; DPPH; Drought stress; Gene expression; H2O2; MDA.