4 research outputs found
Chilling stress effects on reproductive biology of chickpea
Chickpea is sensitive to chilling temperatures (<10°C),
especially at its reproductive phase leading to floral
abortion. The exact causes of reproductive failures are
not fully understood. In the present study, we assessed the
cold-induced damage to development and functioning of
male and female components by growing an early
flowering chickpea genotype ICCV 96029 under warm
conditions of the glasshouse (control; average maximum
and minimum temperature ≥28/15°C) as well as under
cold conditions of the field (average maximum and
minimum temperature ≤20/10°C during reproductive
phase). Low temperature of the field environment
restricted the vegetative growth and delayed all the
phenological stages in comparison to control plants.
Apart from this, it led to some vegetative aberrations like
chlorosis, necrosis of leaf tips and curling of whole leaf.
The damage to reproductive stage involved abscission of
juvenile buds and flowers and abortion of pods. On the
whole, pollen development at young microspore stage
appeared to be severely affected in stressed conditions
compared to the control conditions. Pollen viability was
suppressed during stressed conditions (60%) compared
to normal plants (95%). Stigma receptivity, in vivo pollen
germination and pollen tube growth were inhibited in the
stressed plants. Fluorescent studies showed that the
stigma either did not show any pollen load or pollen
grains did not germinate on its surface in stressed plants.
Even when the pollen grains germinated, the pollen tubes
rarely grew beyond the proximal region of the style;
mostly the pollen tubes were impaired in their growth and
did not reach the ovules leading to failure in fertilization.
The egg and secondary nucleus in such ovules ultimately
disintegrated without fertilizing and hence no seed
formation occurred
Stimulatory effect of phosphate-solubilizing bacteria on plant growth, stevioside and rebaudioside-A contents of Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni
The effect of four phosphate-solubilizing bacteria (PSB), (Burkholderia gladioli 10216, Burkholderia gladioli 10217, Enterobacter aerogenes 10208 and Serratia marcescens 10238) as identified on the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequencing was evaluated on plant growth and commercially important glycosides, stevioside (ST) and rebaudioside-A (R-A) of Stevia rebaudiana in pots containing tricalcium phosphate (TCP) supplemented soil. The PSB were isolated from the rhizosphere of S. rebaudiana plants and tested for P-solubilization ability, biocompatibility, indole acetic acid (IAA) and siderophore production. In greenhouse study, treatment of either individual PSB or a consortium (of PSB) resulted in increased plant growth, ST and R-A contents. The stimulatory effect was observed with consortium treatment in plant growth parameters (shoot length, 22.5%; root length, 14.7%; leaf dry weight, 89.0%; stem dry weight, 76.3% and shoot biomass, 82.5%) and glycoside contents (ST, 150% plant−1 and R-A, 555% plant−1) as compared to the un-inoculated plants. Among individual PSB treatments, B. gladioli 10216 showed most promising response in majority of the parameters studied. The root colonization potential of PSB, assayed by RAPD technique, showed the colonization of all PSB isolates, though their extent of colonization varied