Growth Parameters and Photosynthetic Pigments of Marigold under Stress Induced by Jasmonic Acid
Nilofar ATAEI, Hossein MORADI, Vahid AKBARPOUR*
Department of Horticultural Sciences, Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University, Sari, Iran; [email protected] (*corresponding author)
Abstract
In this research, the effects of different concentrations of jasmonic acid ( JA) on growth parameters of flower diameter, number of flowers, dry flower weight, plant height, 1000-seed weight and also, photosynthetic pigments in marigold (Calendula officinalis L.) were investigated. To achieve this aim, marigold planted in pots and jasmonic acid were sprayed on the shoots at concentrations of 0.75, 150 and 225 µM. Data were compared by Duncan test. The results showed that different concentrations of jasmonic acid significantly affected the dry flower weight, plant height and 1000-seed weight. The maximum plant height and 1000-seed weight were reached by 150 µM jasmonic acid, while 225 µM was recorded the dry flower weight.
Keywords: jasmonic acid, marigold, medicinal plants, morphological, phytochemical
Introduction
Marigold (Calendula officialis L.) is an annual plant be- longing to the Asteraceae family, which often it is used as an ornamental and medicinal plant (Chalchat et al., 1991).
According to Dorwal (2012), this plant contains impor- tant compounds such as saponins, flavonoids, carotenoids, xanthophylls, essential oils, mucilage and phenolic acids.
Because of diverse sources of biological activities such as anti-inflammatory and anti-spasmodic effects, mari- gold is used. Also, it is used in gastric disease, eye and skin damage and some burns (Chakraborthy and Ghorpade, 2010).
Jasmonic acid is a plant growth regulator that plays key roles in plant growth and development, and responses to environmental stress (Creelman et al., 1997; Kozlowski et al., 1995). Studies on different plants showed that foliar application of Jasmonic acid increased growth of arabi- dopsis, and tomato compared with control plants (Bough- ton et al., 2005; Devoto and Turner, 2005; Traw and Ber- gelson, 2003).
Baldi and Dixit (2007) also stated that the use of meth- yl jasmonate in plants as elicitor on artemisia increased biomass. Moreover, several reports on the positive effect of Jasmonic acid on increasing the growth of shoots and number of flowers in Phaseolus lunatus and improving flowering in Lemna minor were mentioned (Heil, 2004;
Krajncic et al., 2006).
As Sorial et al., (2010) found in their research, number of stalk, leaf dry weight, shoot dry weight and chlorophyll content in basil plants are increased under treatment of this hormone.
Swiatek et al. (2003) found that jasmonic acid is effec- tive on cell size and cell division.
Ding et al. (2002) stated that low concentrations of methyl jasmonate significantly increased plant resistance and thus it improves growth. The present reports indi- cate that jasmonates are necessary to promote flowers and sexual development in plants. Therefore, in the presence of jasmonate may have occurred early flower development and caused enhancement in production cycles and then increasing flower yield (Delker et al., 2006).
Considering Jasmonic acids as growth regulator ef- fective on phytochemical, and morphological attributes, and since these attributes are directly or indirectly effec- tive on the medicinal properties of marigold, therefore, the purpose of the experiment design is to find some rela- tions between the effects of hormonal treatments and phy- tochemical and morphological changes to achieve optimal effective concentration on desired traits.
Material and methods
To perform this experiment, Jasmonic acid purchased from Sigma (J2500) and the seeds of marigold were ob- tained from the Pakan Bazr Company. The experiment was completely randomized design with four levels of hor- Received 28 July 2013; accepted 07 November 2013
number (24). There was no statistically difference between different treatments different treatments (p≤0.05).
Fig. 2. Effect of different concentration of jasmonic acid on number of flower
Plants treated with 225 µM jasmonic acid caused the highest flower dry weight (0.44 g) that had no significant difference (p≤0.05) with control plants and plants treated with 150 µM, whereas significant difference (p≤0.05) is observed between this level and the plants treated with 75 µM jasmonic acid (Fig. 3).
Fig. 3. Effect of different concentration of jasmonic acid on dry flower weight
Plant height has a ascending trend from control up to 150 µM. As the highest value of plant height (34.36 cm) was obtained in plants treated with 150 µM that have a significant difference (p≤0.05) with control plant (29.18 cm) (Fig. 4).
Fig. 4. Effect of different concentration of jasmonic acid on plant height
mone including concentrations of 0, 75, 150 and 225 µM jasmonic acid.
Each treatment has 15 replicates. 4-5 leaf stage seed- lings from seeds, transferred in pots filled with peat, leaves soil, potting soil. Plants were sprayed three times with hor- mone. Traits such as flower diameter, number of flowers, dry flower weight, plant height, 1000 seed weight, carote- noids, chlorophyll a and b were examined in this present study. Measurement of chlorophyll and carotenoids was performed by Porra (2002) method.
After the reaction between fresh leaf tissue and metha- nol, absorption were measured by spectrophotometer (Model uv-1800 PC) at a wavelength of 665.2 nm for chlorophyll a, 652.4 nm for chlorophyll b and 470 nm for carotenoids. The content of chlorophyll a, b and carote- noids were calculated from the following formula:
Chlorophyll a= (16.72×A665.2)-(9.16×A652.4) Chlorophyll b= (34.09×A652.4)-(15.28×A665.2)
Carotenoid=[(1000×A470)-1.63×Chlorophyll a-(104.96×Chlorophyll b)]/221
After flower harvest, they were weighted by digital scale (model A&D company limiled) and to measure dry weight were dried in oven (model BM120) at 40 °C for 72 h (Omidbaigi, 1997). Analysis of variance, mean compari- son using Duncan’s multiple range test at the five percent level and drawing graph were done by SPSS software.
Results
Mean comparison results indicated that plants treat- ed with 225 µM had dedicated highest flower diameter (5.26 cm). While no significant difference was observed between any of the treatments (p≤0.05) and the lowest flower diameter (5.06 cm) was obtained in plants treated with 150 µM jasmonic acid (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1. Effect of different concentration of jasmonic acid on flower diameter
As it can be seen in Fig. 2, with the increasing of con- centration of jasmonic acid from 0 to 150 µM, the number of flowers has increased through ascending trend. The ap- plication of jasmonic acid at 150 µM produced the highest
Moisture content (%) has the descending trend from 0 to 225 µM (Tab. 1). Biomass was enhanced with increas- ing concentration of jasmonic acid as in 225 µM the high- est content was obtained (19.52).
In terms of seed weight, the highest value (13.05 g) was obtained at 150 µM jasmonic acid and control plant was recorded the lowest value (10.80 g).
Plants treated with 150 µM had no significant differ- ence with 75 µM. while significant difference is observed between this level with control plants and 225 µM.
Tab. 1. Means comparison of studied attributes in treatment with jasmonic acid
In each column, means with the same letter has no significant difference.
Considering that statistically nonsignificant difference was found between treatments in terms of carotenoids, but the highest carotenoids content (0.91 µg ml-1) was obtained at 75 µM and plants treated with 225 µM were recorded the lowest carotenoids content (0.82 µg ml-1).
According to the results, with the increasing of the concentration of Jasmonic acid, chlorophyll a increased up to 150 µM.
It is remarkable that there was no significant difference between treatments (p≤0.05). However, significant dif- ferences (p≤0.05) between treatments in terms of chloro- phyll b did not exist, but the highest value (1.074 µg ml-1) was obtained at 225 µM and concentration of 75 µM was accounted for the lowest (0.89 µg ml-1) (Tab. 1).
Tab. 2 also indicates that there is significant positive correlation (p ≤0.01) exist between flower diameters, flower dry weight and also between chlorophyll a and car- otenoids. Diameter and flower number have a significant negative correlation (p ≤0.01). It is remarkable that there is significant positive correlation (p≤0.05) between plant height and flower number.
Also, flower dry weight along with moisture content and biomass has significant negative and positive correla- tion (p≤0.05) respectively. In addition, a significant nega- tive correlation (p≤0.05) is observed between chlorophyll b and carotenoids.
Concentra- tion of hormone
(µM)
Moisture (%) Biomass
(g) 1000
seed weight
(gr)
Carotenoid of leaf (µg ml-1)
Chlorophyll
a (µg ml-1) Chlorophyll b (µg ml-1)
0 83.16 a 16.83 a 10.803
b 0.86 a 3.01 a 1.06 a
75 82.90 a 17.09 a 11.9 ab 0.91 a 3.12 a 0.89 a
150 81.11 a 18.88 a 13.05 a 0.90 a 3.26 a 1.07 a
225 80.47 a 19.52 a 11.34 b 0.82 a 2.96 a 1.074 a
Flower diameter (cm)Number of flowersDry flower weight (gr)Plant height (cm)
1000 seed wCarotenoids Chlorophyll Chlorophyll Moisture eight Biomass-1-1-1(µg ml)a (µg ml)b (µg ml)content (gr) Flower diameter (cm)1 Number of flowers- 0.454**1 nsDry flower weight (gr)0.332**-0.1991 nsnsPlant height (cm)-0.2190.285*-0.0911 nsnsns1000 seed weight (gr)-0.2190.1-0.0570.407**1 l-1nsnsnsnsnsCarotenoids (µg m)-0.0610.031-0.0060.1470.2141 -1nsnsnsnsnsChlorophyll a (µg ml)-0.530.056-0.0270.0900.2210.928**1 -1nsnsnsnsnsChlorophyll b (µg ml)0.0690.0250.109-0.219-0.051-0.282*-0.036*1 nsnsnsnsnsnsnsMoisture content0.006-0.125-0.291*-0.0620.0340.091-0.005-0.171 nsnsnsnsnsnsnsBiomass-0.0060.1250.291*0.0620.034-0.0910.0050.17-1**1 ** (p<0.01), * (p<0.05), ns (p>0.05)
Tab. 2. Correlation coefficients between studied attributes of Calendula officinalis in
It seems that in case of increasing number of flowers, consumer organ increases too. Thus, each flower reaches less carbohydrate and dwindles. Positive correlation be- tween the plant height and the number of flower can be as a result of direct relation between the plant height and the number of nods. When the plant height increases, number of nods increases too. So, more flowers form at nods.
In this connection, it has been reported that jasmonic acid increased the number of nodes and length of inter- node in tissue culture of Vitis vinifera L. (Ravnikar et al., 1990). In general, considering the results of these experi- ments, high concentrations of jasmonic acid are proposed to achieve the desirable traits of ornamental and medici- nal.
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As the results showed, traits such as flower diameter, flower number and flower dry weight in plants treated with 225 µM jasmonic acid reached the highest values.
These results are consistent with those obtained by (Heil, 2004; Krajncic et al., 2006), who stated that jasmonic acid increases flowering in Lemna minor and Phaseolus luna- tus.Wasternack (2006) also outlined that Jasmonic acid has several roles in flowering and this hormone has effects on anther development, female organ development, chemical defence production, color production, and the attraction of pollinators.
Based on the presented results, dry flower weight at the level of 225 µM significantly was increased than 225 µM.
These findings are in accordance with other research- ers who claimed that jamonates improves growth of arabi- dopsis, tomato, artemisia and basil (Baldi and Dixit, 2007;
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