Potassium attenuates drought damage by regulating sucrose metabolism and gene expression in sesame leaf.

Drought has been considered the most restrictive environmental constraint on agricultural production worldwide. Photosynthetic carbohydrate metabolism is a critical biochemical process connected with crop production and quality traits. A pot experiment was carried out under four potassium (K) rates (0, 0.

Comparative analysis of drought stress-induced physiological and transcriptional changes of two black sesame cultivars during anthesis.

Sesame production is severely affected by unexpected drought stress during flowering stage. However, little is known about dynamic drought-responsive mechanisms during anthesis in sesame, and no particular attention was given to black sesame, the most common ingredient in East Asia traditional medicine. Herein, we investigated drought-responsive mechanisms of two contrasting black sesame cultivars (Jinhuangma, JHM, and Poyanghei, PYH) during anthesis.

Potassium application enhances drought tolerance in sesame by mitigating oxidative damage and regulating osmotic adjustment.

Potassium (K) is known for alleviating the negative effects of abiotic stresses on plants. To explore the functions of K in controlling reactive oxygen species (ROS), antioxidant activities, and osmoregulation in sesame under drought stress, a pot experiment was conducted with three K levels (0, 60, and 120 kg ha, recorded as K0, K1, and K2, respectively) and exposed to well-watered (WW, 75% ± 5% soil relative water content) and drought-stressed (DS, 50% ± 5% soil relative water content) conditions. The results showed that DS stimulated the production of ROS such as increased hydrogen peroxide (HO), leading to lipid peroxidation as characterized by higher malondialdehyde (MDA) and, consequently, resulting in the decline in relative water content (RWC) and photosynthetic pigments as compared with WW plants.