PJB-2025-410
PHYSIOLOGICAL AND BIOCHEMICAL RESPONSES OF DIVERSE TOMATO GENOTYPES TO SHORT-TERM DROUGHT STRESS
Nazan Ergun
Abstract
Drought stress, which has become one of the major limitations in horticultural crop production due to climate change, was studied in the present research through the physiological and biochemical responses of five genotypically diverse tomato genotypes: two cherry types (‘Chadwick’ and ‘Gold Nugget’) and three Turkish beefsteak landraces (‘Çanakkale’, ‘Guldar’, and ‘Yerli Pembe’). The plants were exposed to seven days of water stress under controlled conditions. Stress tolerance was evaluated through the quantification of growth, leaf physiology, oxidative damage, and antioxidant enzyme activity. Drought stress negatively affected the biomass and plant height of the chosen genotypes without altering the leaf relative water content. The stress genotypically elicited strong visual damage, milder oxidative stress (higher malondialdehyde and hydrogen peroxide levels) and membrane instability (higher electrolyte leakage). The landrace 'Guldar' exhibited the highest sensitivity, showing the most severe visual damage, while 'Gold Nugget' showed optimal tolerance, displaying minimal visible symptoms and maintaining the majority of the physiological values. Antioxidant enzyme activities varied; catalase activity increased in 'Chadwick' and 'Yerli Pembe', whereas superoxide dismutase activity did not show any variation. Multivariate statistics further confirmed that the visual damage index, catalase activity, fresh weight, and plant height were effective discriminators between treatments. Meanwhile, leaf area, electrolyte leakage, plant height, and the visual damage index functioned as discriminators among genotypes. The findings illustrate that there is considerable genetic diversity in the drought tolerance mechanism among the tomato genotypes.
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