Role of salicylic acid in heat stress tolerance in tri-genomic Brassica napus L.

Abstract

Tri-genomic Brassica napus L.wasdeveloped by the cross between Brassica napusand Brassica nigra. The crop is animportant source of vegetable seed oil in Pakistan,after cotton. The low oilseed rape yield is attributed to high temperature in the production zones. Interspecific hybridization using these two speciescan be helpful to produce heat resistant hybrids. On the other hand, it has been found that foliar application of different plant growth regulators can be used to reduce the heat stress in Brassica. The objectiveof this studywas to test the response of three different tri-genomic hybrids to high temperature stressat seedling stage. Seedlings were foliar sprayed with 0.13 mM salicylic acid (SA) prior to exposure tohigh temperatureat two true leaf stage. The plants were harvested after 30 days of sowing for growth and biochemical analysis. Plants ofV38 showed the highest values for all morphological traits and biochemical activities among the threehybrids. In general, plants exposed to the temperature stress exhibited a significant decline in growth, chlorophyll content and enzyme activity.Foliar application of SA significantly improved leaf and root biomass under heat stress.Further, antioxidativeenzyme activities significantly increased in response to SA either compared to control or to plants exposed to temperature stress.It is concluded thatapplication of salicylic acid elevated activity of antioxidative enzymes and was helpful in mitigating the detrimental effects of high temperature inoil seed rape.