Author(s): Sandeep Kumar Chaurasia, Chinmayee Acharya and Jitendra Kumar Pandey

Abstract: Piper betel. L is a traditional, medicinal, and economical asset to mankind. Due to its enormous health benefits and delectable taste, it has been a part of heritage cultivation for thousands of years. Unfortunately, the cultivation frequency of this cash crop has declined in recent years due to the challenging setups and abiotic and biotic stresses. Fusarium wilt in betel vine caused by Fusarium sp. is one of the major causes of huge economic losses every year. This study was designed to observe the effects of pretreatment of the JA-ABA (T) pair on growth and defense in betel vine under pathogenic stress. The treatments, namely N, P, and T, were under observation for 21 days, followed by physiological, biochemical, and statistical analysis. It was observed that T showed a significant increase in shoot length, root length, biomass, and leaf count as compared to P. Biochemical analyses such as RWC, MDA, pigment content, H_₂O_₂ content_, total ascorbate, and total glutathione content revealed the positive impact of the JA-ABA combination on plants even after infection. DPPH radical scavenging activity was found to be highest in leaf extracts of T after standard ascorbic acid. P showed significantly lower antioxidant activity than T and standard N. PCA, correlation matrix, AHC were performed to study the variability between treatment sets using XLSTAT-Student 2025.1.3.1431 software. It was observed that majority of the variance was due to PC1 (79.63%) which included most of the correlated physiological parameters. MDA, H_₂O_₂ and EL were found to be negatively correlated with others. The above experimental and statistical observations suggest that this combination can be an effective strategy to boost the immune tolerance in betel vine against fusarium wilt disease.

DOI: 10.22271/27893065.2025.v5.i2b.153

Pages: 122-132 | Views: 53 | Downloads: 16

Download Full Article: Click Here