Effect of Seed Treatment on Alleviation of Low Temperature Stress in Tinda (Citrullus vulgaris L.)

By : Namarta Gupta, Dimple Parcha

Page No: 51-56

Abstract
The investigation was planned to study, the effect of proline and salicylic acid on germination and antioxidant enzymes in the seedling of tinda (Citrullus vulgaris L.) cultivar S-48 seeds at different temperature (25°C and 20°C). Seeds were treated with different concentration of proline (1mM, 5mM, 10mM and 20mM) and salicylic acid (0.1mM, 0.5mM, 1mM and 5mM) for 5 hours at 25°C and 20°C. The seed treatments increased the germination percentage and activity of antioxidant enzymes like catalase, peroxidase and superoxide dismutase as compared to control at both the temperatures. Soaking the seed with proline 20mM recorded maximum germination percentage (96.19, 90.00) over control and activity of antioxidant enzymes viz. catalase (74.03, 60.82), peroxidase (2.12, 1.35) and superoxide dismutase (54.44, 33.63) as compared to control at both the temperatures 25°C and 20°C respectively. Similarly, among the different concentrations of salicylic acid, salicylic acid 1mM recorded maximum germination percentage (93.33, 90.67) and activity of antioxidant enzymes viz. catalase (90.49, 81.61), peroxidase (2.86, 1.96) and superoxide dismutase (66.84, 41.65) as compared to control at both the temperatures 25°C and 20°C respectively. Thus, proline 20 mM and SA 1mM can be used to ameliorate the low temperature tolerance in tinda.

Authors :
Dimple Parcha and Namarta Gupta : Department of Botany, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana-141004, Punjab, India