Biochemical mechanisms of fruit growth regulation in drought stressed tomato plants
2008
Vucelic-Radovic, B., Faculty of Agriculture, Belgrade - Zemun (Serbia) | Savic, S., Faculty of Agriculture, Belgrade - Zemun (Serbia) | Jovanovic, Z., Faculty of Agriculture, Belgrade - Zemun (Serbia) | Paukovic, M., Faculty of Agriculture, Belgrade - Zemun (Serbia) | Stikic, R., Faculty of Agriculture, Belgrade - Zemun (Serbia)
The effects of partial root-zone drying (PRD) and full irrigation techniques on tomato fruit growth and cell wall peroxidase activity in tomato exocarp were investigated in growth chamber conditions. The PRD treatment was 50% of water given to FI plants applied to one half of the root system while the other half dried down, with irrigation shifted when soil water content of the dry side decreased 15% to 20%. PRD treatment reduced fresh weight while having no significant effect on fruit dry weight. The activity of peroxidase was significantly higher in PRD treated plants compared to those of FI. Differences between FI and PRD were were expressed on temporal basis. In the fruits of FI treated plants peroxidase activity began to increase shortly before the phase when intensive fruit growth started to decline with the peak of enzyme activity of 3.3 HRPEU/g FW. The highest increase of peroxidase activity in PRD fruits coincided with the ripening phase and the peak of enzyme activity was measured at the end of fruit ripening. These data potentially identified different roles of tomato exocarp cell wall peroxidase in PRD treated plants. In FI treated plants a role of peroxidase in restricting fruit growth rate was confirmed, but the increase in enzyme activity during ripening of PRD treated fruit pointed out that cell wall peroxidase may also control fruit maturation by inducting more rapid process.
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