Author(s):

Srikanth Bathula, Jayalalitha K, Ashoka Rani Y, Sree Rekha M and Mohammed Anwar Ali

Abstract: A field experiment was conducted during rabi season of 2017-18 at agricultural college farm, Bapatla to investigate the effect of seed pretreatment and foliar application of zinc on osmoregulation and antioxidant defence system in mungbean under drought stress, in a split plot design with three replications. The treatments comprised of two main treatments viz., no stress i.e. control (M₀) and stress from flowering stage (i.e. from 30 DAS) up to harvest (M₁) and seven sub-treatments viz., no zinc application (S₀), seed treatment with 0.05% and 0.075% ZnSO₄ solutions for 5 hrs before sowing (S₁ and S₂), foliar spray of 300, 400 and 500 ppm ZnSO₄ at 30 DAS (S_3, S₄ and S₅) and water spray at 30 DAS (S₆). The results of the study revealed that Leaf proline and super oxide dismutase (SOD) contents were enhanced by 10.3 and 30.0 per cent, respectively, in the plants that were subjected to water stress from flowering stage compared to control plants, which is an indication of plants adaption to abiotic stress conditions. Among zinc treatments, foliar spray of zinc @ 500 ppm at 30 DAS and seed pre-treatment with zinc @ 0.075% before sowing increased the proline and SOD activities by 10.8 and 9.0; 21.3 and 13.5 per cent, respectively, over untreated (control) plants at 60 DAS. It can be concluded that the use of zinc spray @ 500 ppm at 30 DAS counteracted the deleterious effects of water stress on mungbean by osmoregulation and antioxidant defence mechanism.

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