Antioxidant Enzymes and Photosynthetic Responses to Drought Stress of Time Canna edulis Cultivars

Edible canna is a productive starch source in some tropical and semitropical regions. In these regions, water deficit stress is one of factors that limit the crop yield. In the present study, we investigated seven physiological indexes and photosynthetic responses of three edible canna (Canna edulis Ker.) cultivars ('PLRF', 'Xingyu-1, and 'Xingyu-2') under 35 days drought stress. Our results indicated that drought treatment caused visible wilting symptoms in all cultivars, especially in 'Xingyu-1'. Coupled with the increase of wilting symptoms, relative water content (RWC) and chlorophyll content decreased progressively, malondialdehyde (MDA) content gradually increased, and key antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT) activities increased first and then decreased in all three cultivars. The effect of water stress was more pronounced in 'Xingyu-1' than in TLRF' and 'Xingyu-2', and in lower leaves than in upper leaves. In addition, 35 days drought stress also significantly reduced the photosynthetic capacity. Consistent with antioxidant parameters, photosynthetic changes of 'Xingyu-2' were less than those of the other cultivars under water deficit stress. Drought stress caused a significant increase of water use efficiency (WUE) in aingyu-2', but little in TLRF', and obvious decrease in 'Xingyu-1'. These results indicated that aingyu-2' was more tolerant to drought stress than TLRF' and 'Xingyu-1' by maintaining lower lipid peroxidation and higher antioxidant enzyme activities.