Morphological, Biochemical, and Gene Expression Responses of Selected Pea (Pisum sativum L.) Varieties to Water-deficit Stress

Water deficit is a destructive abiotic stress that limits crops' productivity and survival. In the current study, three pea varieties i.e., Climax, Green Grass, and Meteor were screened under 0% (control), 40%, and 70% water-deficit stress according to field capacity. The effects of stress at the morphological, biochemical, and molecular levels were studied; selected pea varieties showed significant differences in root length, shoot length, leaf area, leaf number, and fresh and dry biomass at 40% and 70% of water deficit. The chlorophyll, carotenoids, lipid peroxidation, and proline content were affected, in all three pea varieties. Overall maximum chlorophyll content was 19.9 mg/g in Climax variety at control while the minimum was 14.3 mg/g in Green Grass variety at 70% water deficit among all three varieties. The lipid peroxidation in all three pea varieties increased at 40% and had a maximum value at 70% water deficit. The maximum proline content of 0.0456 mg/100 g was observed for Meteor variety at 70% water-deficit stress while the minimum was 0.037 mg/100 g for Climax variety at control among all three varieties. Three water-deficit resistance-related genes i.e., PsDREB2A, PsLoxG, and PsProC were expressed differentially in all three pea varieties.