Growth and photosynthetic pigments responses of Setaria viridis (L.) P. Beauv. to drought stress

Abstract

Drought stress has a serious effect on plant growth and development in many regions of the world. Green millet (Setaria viridis) is valuable model plants for investigating the C4 grasses for biotic and abiotic stress tolerance. This study was carried out to evaluate influence of substrate water content on photosynthetic pigments and biomass accumulation in green millet. Under mild to moderate drought stress, any decrease of chlorophyll a and carotenoids has been obtained, while severe drought causes significant decreasing in all photosynthetic pigments. Therefore future studies dealing with the strategies to improve the pigments contents under water stress are needed. Drought treatment led to a significant decrease in shoots fresh weight accumulation, while dry weight reduction was obtained under moderate and severe drought.