Oxidative stress mitigation studies in two pulse crops

Abstract

Sulphur dioxide is well studied phytotoxic gaseous pollutant. It is one of the main oxidative gas, which is known for the production of various free oxyradicals during its oxidation from unstable from sulphite (SO3--) to stable from sulphate (SO4-) within the life. The oxiradical are initiated by light and mediated by photosynthesis electron transport chain. The generated free radicals react with and cause oxidative damage to various biological molecules and cell organelles.The mechanism of plant tolerance to air pollutants exposure is probably biological rather than biophysical air pollutant have been shown to affect the level of defense enzymes as well as than of antioxidant biomolecules present within the plant cells. Protection of sensitive plant species against the oxidative stress may be achieved through various means such as coating the leaf surface and providing physical and/or chemical protection, through alteration of plant metabolism etc.In the present study, an attempt to made to infuse scavenging potential exogenously in cultivars of two pulse crops namely Lentil (Lens culinaris L medic) and Mung bean (Vigna radiate L.) using certain antioxidants (α – Tocopherol, ascorbic acid and diphenyl amine). Seeds of both the crops and their selected susceptible cultivars were invigorated exogenously with different antioxidant using dry permeation technique. The plantlets generated were subjected to two different SO2 concentration (655 and 2620 g/m3) in open top chambers (OCT) and were evaluated for their response through certain physiological and biochemical parameters. Cultivars JM-721 (Mung bean) and SLC-2 (Lentil) appered to be slightly tolerant than the other respective suseptible cultivars studied (MI–24-91 and Sehore 84 -8). The study trend in general suggests that lower SO2 concentration was slightly beneficial to both the cultivars of both the crops. All the three antioxidant treatment were comparatively effective in most of the parameters. The treatment affectively however differed for the two cultivars of the same crop. Diphenylamine appeared to be promising in most of the parameters, however most effective was α – Tocopherol followed ascorbic acid.