Effect Of Inositol On Cold Resistance In Rice Seedlings And Drought Resistance In Wheat Seedlings

Rice and wheat are important food crops, widely grown in the world. In agriculture, chilling and drought are the main factors in reducing the production of rice and wheat, respectively. Therefore, increasing the resistance of rice and wheat are conducive to maintaining crop yield and improving capacity of agricultural production. Inositol and its derivatives are important signal and nutrients in plant cells, they have a vital role in phosphatidyl inositol signaling pathway, the composition of cell wall and phosphate storage in particular. Recently, the effect of inositol on plant resistance caused attention of people.In this study, wheat and rice were used as materials to study the effect of inositol on rice seedlings resistance to cold stress and wheat seedlings to drought. At first, based on the concentration effect experiment, the optimum concentrations of inositol were selected. Then the effects of inositol on physiological processes of rice seedlings under cold stress and wheat seedlings under drought stress were investigated. The results showed that, under cold stress, the decline of SOD, POD and CAT activity of rice seedlings were decreased significantly by, and the rise of MDA and H2O2 content were inhibited notably by spraying 300 mg·L-1 inositol. Meanwhile, the content of soluble sugar, soluble protein and proline in inositol-treated rice seedlings were higher than those of the low temperature control. After temperature rising, SOD, POD and CAT activity of seedlings were increased quickly, MDA and H2O2 contents were returned to normal levels, and fresh weight and plant height were increased by the treatment of inositol. Under drought stress, SOD, POD and CAT activity of wheat seedlings increased obviously by spraying 400 mg·L-1 inositol, and the increase of MDA and H2O2 contents were inhibited, while no significant changes in soluble sugar and proline contents were observed. When watering was re-supplied, inositol-treated wheat seedlings maintained a higher activity of SOD, POD and CAT, meanwhile, MDA and H2O2 contents decreased more rapidly.In summar, our study showed that MDA and H2O2 contents were reduced significantly in the inositol-treated seedlings, resulted from higher activities of antioxidant enzymes, thereby protecting the cell membrane system from being damaged, resulting in improved cold resistance in rice seedlings and drought resistance in wheat seedlings.