RESPONSE OF WHEAT SEEDLINGS WITH DIFFERENT DROUGHT TOLERANCE TO MELATONIN ACTION UNDER OSMOTIC STRESS

Keywords: Triticum aestivum, melatonin, drought tolerance, reactive oxygen species, antioxidant system, proline, soluble carbohydrates, flavonoids INTRODUCTION A global analysis of published results from studies conducted over the past four decades has shown that wheat yield losses due to water stress are at least 20% (Daryanto et al., 2016). The effects of melatonin may depend not only on the species but also on the varietal characteristics of the plants. [...]melatonin was shown to enhance proline accumulation under drought in non-resistant wheat cultivars and to attenuate it in resistant cultivars (Li et al., 2020). Seeds were disinfected in 70% ethanol for 2 min, then transferred to 2% sodium hypochlorite solution for 15 min, washed 10 times with sterile distilled water, and germinated on water in Petri dishes in a thermostat at 24°C without light for 2 days. Melatonin was dissolved in a small volume of ethanol, the solutions were diluted with distilled water and added to Petri dishes to obtain working solutions with concentrations in the range of 0.2-5.0 pM.