Superoxide dismutase (SOD) expression rate changes in response to water deficit condition in different triticale genotypes

Water deficit in plants induces a complex responses array of physiological and biochemical changes aiming at mitigating the adverse effects of reduced water availability. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) such as hydrogen peroxide accumulate under drought stress, leading to oxidative damage to cellular components. To counteract this, plants enhance the activity of antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), and ascorbate peroxidase (APX). Drought stress Accordingly, the aim of this was to identify triticale genotypes tolerant to water deficit condition and evaluating the changes in SOD gene expression under water deficit condition using two tolerant and susceptible genotypes of triticale. At first 9 genotypes of triticale were tested under four levels of water deficit treatments and different yield related and biochemical traits were measured to identify the most tolerant and most susceptible ones. The results showed that genotype 3 and 9 can be regarded as tolerant and susceptible genotypes. Following, these two selected genotypes were used in greenhouse experiment under water deficit condition where the activity and relative expression of SOD genes were evaluated at 12h, 36, and 72 h after inducing the stress. Results indicated that SOD activity of tolerant genotype was significantly higher than the susceptible one. Similar results obtained for the activity of SOD enzyme. Both genotypes respond positively to longer exposure to drought, but the response of tolerant genotype was significantly quicker and the values of relative expression were significantly higher than susceptible genotype. The final results indicated that SOD activity along with its expression content can be used as proper marker to spot the tolerant or susceptible genotypes of plant under drought stress. Additionally, genotype 3 showed to be a suitable nominee to be released as a new tolerant cultivar of triticale under water deficit condition.