Drought pretreatment mitigates chilling stress of tomato seedlings through altering gas exchange parameters

F. Ghanbari, M. Sayyari
Low temperatures lead to chilling injury symptoms of tomato plants. In this study, the possibility of chilling tolerance enhancing of tomato seedling by drought pretreated with 10 or 20% polyethylene glycol (PEG) was investigated in the greenhouse of the agricultural faculty of Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan in 2015. After imposing drought stress, the seedlings were subjected to chilling 6 h day‑1 at 3°C for 6 days. Results showed that PEG pretreatment improved the growth rate of tomato seedlings subjected to chilling stress and improved chlorophyll content, net photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, transpiration, and internal CO2 concentration compared with the control. The highest cold tolerance was obtained with 20% PEG application. In general, results indicate that PEG pretreatment by altering gas exchange parameters reduced the adverse effect of chilling on tomato seedlings.
Ghanbari, F. and Sayyari, M. (2021). Drought pretreatment mitigates chilling stress of tomato seedlings through altering gas exchange parameters. Acta Hortic. 1315, 433-438
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2021.1315.64
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2021.1315.64
photosynthesis, transplanting, hardening, stomatal conductance, transpiration
English

Acta Horticulturae