Effect of glycine betaine in the alleviation of abiotic stresses in groundnut genotypes

Many of the biotic and abiotic stresses faced by grain legumes contributr to the largeyield gap between potential and realzed yields. Abiotic stresses occurring at critical growthstages in groundnut affect productivity by reducing the total dry matter, pod yield andquality. Present study investigates thc role of glycine bctninc in nllevintiny cll'ccts of thethree major abiotic stresses i, e., drought, heat and salinity on selected groundnut genotypes.The investigation was conducted in 3 phases (a) effect of betaine on tolerance of groundnutseedlings to heat and salinity stress conditions, (b) effect of betaine on isolated plantsgrowing in pots subjected to drought, heat and salinity, and ( c) effect of betaine on toleranceof groundnut genotypes to simulated drought under field conditions. The experiments wereconducted during 1996- 98 period at ICRISAT centre, Patancheru in laboratory, glasshouse, growth chamber and field. (a) The seedlings were subjected to high temperature andsalinity stress conditions in laboratory with and without glycine betaine trcatmcnt, underhigh temperature stress conditions, the seedlings with betaine treatment are able to produceroot and shoot lengths (34 and 40%) than seedlings without betaine treatment, in the noninduced treatments, there was a 122% greater growth in betaine treated seedlings comparedto untreated ones, correspondingly the gel electrophoresis results indicated that betainetreatment was able to produce four new proteins with molecular weights of 76.4, 60.6, 54.6and 16.5 kDa. Similarly under salinity stress conditions, the betaine treatment was able toproduce 30 and 32% more root and shoot growths. The protein profiles indicated that betainetreatment was able to produce four new proteins with molecular weights of 65.4, 37.8, 35.4and 16.5 kDa. These stress shock proteins which are produced under high temperature and

K Sailaja, 'Effect of glycine betaine in the alleviation of abiotic stresses in groundnut genotypes', 2011