Alina Kulbachna
Daugavpils University, Latvia
Title: Antioxidant responses of wheat seedlings under waterlogging stress
Biography
Biography: Alina Kulbachna
Abstract
Wheat is one of the most important crops in the world, one of the main sources of calories and proteins for many people of different cultures. But wheat is a very sensitive cereal to waterlogging stress (root oxygen deprivation). The effects of flooding makes dramatic influence on wheat plants: depress photosynthesis and respiration, reduce growth, development and finally yield. The object of this study was to identify waterlogging-tolerant cultivars of bread wheat original Latvian selection. Five wheat cultivars were tested under aerobic and root-anaerobic conditions to determine antioxidant activity - the mechanisms that protect cellular homeostasis from oxidative damages, occurred during stress. The experiment was carried in the climatic chambers under controlled environmental conditions: T=22°C, H=70%, 12 h photoperiod, light condition 600 µmol m-2 s-1. Soil environment for experimental group of 10-days seedlings were water saturated during 14 days. To observe the dynamic of antioxidant activity in different parts of first leaf (basal, middle and apical parts), the measurements were performed three times on the first, seventh and 14th day of root flooding. The antioxidant responses of wheat cultivars were investigated in methanol extracts spectrophotometrically: total content of phenolic compounds, the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl(DPPH), 2,2′-azinobis-(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) (ABTS) free radical scavenging capacity and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP). The various responses to waterlogging were detected in the parts of first leaf, because of the different physiological conditions and genetic capabilities. However, an elevation of antioxidant activity correlated with duration of stress treatment in all wheat cultivars.