Feasibility of using melatonin content in pepper (Capsicum annuum) seeds as a physiological marker of chilling stress tolerance
Ahmet Korkmaz
A * , Elif Düver A , Katarzyna Szafrańska B * , Aygül Karaca A , Şebnem Köklü Ardıç A and Gökçen Yakupoğlu C
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A Department of Horticulture, Kahramanmaraş Sütçü Imam University, Kahramanmaraş, Turkey.
B Department of Plant Ecophysiology, Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection, University of Lodz, Lodz, Poland.
C Department of Horticulture, Yozgat Bozok University, Yozgat, Turkey.
* Correspondence to: akorkmaz@ksu.edu.tr, katarzyna.szafranska@biol.uni.lodz.pl
Handling Editor: Ismail Turkan
Functional Plant Biology 49(9) 832-843 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP22005
Submitted: 17 January 2022 Accepted: 27 May 2022 Published: 15 June 2022
© 2022 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing
Abstract
The presence of melatonin, a known animal hormone, has been confirmed in many evolutionary distant organisms, including higher plants. It is known that melatonin increases tolerance to stress factors as a wide spectrum antioxidant. Tolerant genotypes have generally higher melatonin content than sensitive ones, and exposure to stressful conditions is known to increase endogenous melatonin levels. However, endogenous melatonin levels in seeds have never been used to select genotypes tolerant to abiotic stresses. Thus, in this study, the existence of possible relationship between seed melatonin levels of 28 pepper (Capsicum annuum L.) genotypes and their germination and emergence performance under chilling conditions (15°C) was investigated. The results indicated that these parameters were much better for pepper genotypes with higher seed melatonin contents while those having less than 2 ng g−1 additionally exhibited elevated levels of MDA and H2O2 but lower antioxidant enzyme activities. Thus, a positive relationship between seed melatonin content and chilling stress tolerance has been shown, suggesting a possible use of endogenous melatonin levels as a criterion in selecting chilling stress tolerant varieties. To save considerable time, money and labour, it is recommended that genotypes with lower melatonin contents are excluded from breeding programmes that aim to develop new stress tolerant genotypes.
Keywords: antioxidant enzymes, emergence, endogenous melatonin, germination, lipid peroxidation, pepper, physiological marker, stress tolerance.
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