Morphophysiological and biochemical response of mungbean [Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek] varieties at different developmental stages under drought stress

Abstract

The present study was conducted to assess the morphophysiological and biochemical responses during different developmentalstages in mungbean varieties subjected to drought stress, and to screen the varieties for drought tolerance. A field experiment wasperformed according to a completely randomized design on 25 mungbean varieties with 3 replicates per variety. Stress treatment wasapplied at 3 levels: control (no stress), vegetative stage (25 days after sowing), and reproductive stage (35 days after sowing). Accordingto combined analysis of variance, there were significant effects from drought stress on relative water content (RWC), membrane stabilityindex (MSI), protein and proline content of leaves, leaf area, plant height, and yield traits. MSI, RWC, protein content, leaf area, plantheight, and yield traits were decreased during drought stress, while proline content was increased under drought stress conditions. Theresults showed that the vegetative stage was more sensitive to drought stress, which was further supported by correlation analysis. Takentogether, Vigna sublobata, MCV-1, PLM-32, LGG-407, LGG-450, TM-96-2, and Sattya varieties were identified as drought tolerant asthey maintained the higher values of RWC, MSI, protein, proline content, leaf area, plant height, and yield traits. These varieties couldbe used in breeding programs for better physiological drought tolerance traits.