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EFFECT OF EXOGENOUS APPLICATION OF MANNITOL ON MORPHOLOGICAL, BIOCHEMICAL AND YIELD TRAITS OF HEAT STRESSED MUNGBEAN (Vigna radiata L.)

Bisma Shakoor, Syed Muhammad Faheem, Ijaz Ahmad, Ali Sher, Rana Aftab Iqbal, Abdullah Shoukat, Zahoor Ahmad, Muhammad Irfan, Syed Saqlain Hussain, Nazer Manzoor, Muhammad Shoaib Kamran, Samman Gul Vaseer, Tayyub Hussain, Sira

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Abstract

Mungbean is the major legume as well as cash crop after chickpea in the legume family. In changing climatic scenarios, heat stress has become a major challenge in mungbean yield and productivity. Research was laid down to understand the effect of exogenously applied mannitol on terminal heat stressed mungbean. The experiment was performed under greenhouse conditions. Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with split arrangement having five replications was selected to conduct the experiment. Heat stress was applied at flower initiation and pod formation stages and different levels (0 mg/L, 100 mg/L, 200 mg/L and 300 mg/L) of mannitol were foliar applied. Morphological, physiological, and yield traits were focused. Significance was determined by ANOVA and means were compared by using Tukey’s test. Heat reduced all the parameters significantly and interaction of mannitol with heat improved all the morphological parameters (shoot and root length (cm), shoot fresh weight (g/ plant), root fresh and dry weight (g/ plant) significantly as the dose of mannitol was increased. All the biochemical parameters (chlorophyll a and chlorophyll b contents) were increased under heat stress. Mannitol worked as a compatible solute and as an antioxidant that help the plant to overcome the ROS species and showed significant interaction with heat at 300 mg L^-1. All yield parameters (number of seeds/pod, number of pods/plant, pod length (cm), 100 seed weight (g) and seed yield (g/plant) were also significantly improved due to interactive effect of mannitol and heat.

Key words: Heat stress, Mannitol, Mungbean, Green gram, Growth