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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Abiotic Stress
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1516302

Effects of exogenous spraying of melatonin on the growth of Platycrater arguta under drought stress

Provisionally accepted
Xule Zhang Xule Zhang Xiaohua Ma Xiaohua Ma Yaping Hu Yaping Hu Qingdi Hu Qingdi Hu Junxiu Wen Junxiu Wen Yizeng Chen Yizeng Chen Renjuan Qian Renjuan Qian *Jian Zheng Jian Zheng *
  • Zhejiang Institute of Subtropical Crops, Zhejiang, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Platycrater arguta is a rare and endangered deciduous shrub from the Tertiary period. This study investigates the effects of different levels of drought stress (10%, 20%, and 30% polyethylene glycol-6000) on the phenotype and physiological-biochemical characteristics of P. arguta over a 10-day period, aiming to assess its drought tolerance. Drought stress significantly inhibited the growth of P.arguta. As the PEG-6000 concentration increased, leaf relative water content and net photosynthetic rate (Pn) decreased significantly, while leaf wilting severity, membrane damage, antioxidant enzyme activity, and soluble sugar content increased. A 30% PEG-6000 concentration caused irreversible damage to P. arguta, even leading to plant death. Exogenous application of melatonin during drought stress alleviated this irreversible damage to some extent by increasing leaf relative water content, enhancing photosynthetic efficiency, boosting antioxidant enzyme activity, accumulating osmotic regulators, and reducing leaf desiccation. Among the tested concentrations, 100 µM melatonin showed the most significant effect. The PEG+MT100 treatment primarily enhanced drought adaptability by upregulating the expression of ABI1 and downregulating genes such as AUX1A-2, IAA2-2, and HP2-1, thus mitigating the irreversible damage caused by 30% PEG-6000. This is the first study to demonstrate the potential of melatonin to enhance drought tolerance in P. arguta , providing practical insights for conservation efforts and improving the resilience of ornamental plants to environmental stress.

    Keywords: endangered plants, stress response, Physiology and biochemistry, Transcriptome, plant hormones

    Received: 24 Oct 2024; Accepted: 20 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Zhang, Ma, Hu, Hu, Wen, Chen, Qian and Zheng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence:
    Renjuan Qian, Zhejiang Institute of Subtropical Crops, Zhejiang, China
    Jian Zheng, Zhejiang Institute of Subtropical Crops, Zhejiang, China

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