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ABSTRACT
In this study, the impacts of exogenous melatonin on freezing stress mitigation in pistachio (Pistacia vera L.) seedlings (30-days old) were investigated. Our results showed that in pistachio seedlings under freezing stress antioxidant enzyme activity, malondialdehyde (MDA) hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), electrolyte leakage, chlorophyll degradation, proline and soluble sugar and γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) content increased. Phenolic component, phenylalanine ammonia lyase (PAL) activity and the expression of fatty acid desaturase (FAD2) gene increased whilst ascorbate and glutathione concentration significantly decreased in comparison with control. In this research, application of melatonin significantly reduced the antioxidant enzyme activity, MDA, H2O2, chlorophyll degradation, GABA concentration, soluble sugar, and proline contents under stress condition. In addition electrolyte leakage, PAL activity and transcripts of FAD2 gene markedly decreased when the leaves of pistachio seedlings sprayed with melatonin. The results of this study showed that MEL could alleviate the oxidative damages induced by freezing stress and to maintain the structure and mobility of cell membrane in pistachio seedlings under stress conditions. Considering that MEL is an inexpensive and safe bio-stimulator, it seems that MEL is a potential candidate that could be applied used to increase the resistant pistachio trees against variety of biotic and abiotic stresses in the field conditions.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman and Pistachio Research Center for supporting this work.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Adeleh Barand
Adeleh Barand is a PhD student in plant physiology, major studies in the field of abiotic stresses, especially cold.
Fatemeh Nasibi
Fatemeh Nasibi is a Associate Professor of Plant Physiology. Fields of research are stress physiology in plants, medicinal plants and secondary metabolites, conducting 4 research projects, supervising 5 PhD students, 22 postgraduate students and publishing 30 international articles in reliable journals and 26 articles in Persian in national journals of Iran.
Khosrow Manouchehri Kalantari
Khosrow Manouchehri Kalantari is a Professor of Plant Physiology. Fields of research are stress physiology in plants, supervising 12 PhD students, 30 postgraduate students and publishing 50 international articles in reliable journals and 40 articles in Persian in national journals of Iran.
Mohammad Moradi
Mohammad Moradi is a PhD in Plant Pathology, have 40 research articles, Performing 14 research projects and having 4 volumes of books and fluent in of DNA and RNA based molecular and PCR, RFLP, AFLP and Real-Time PCR techniques.