Morphological, physiological and antioxidant responses of some Iranian grapevine cultivars to methyl jasmonate application

The role of exogenously applied Methyl jasmonate (MeJA) in morphological responses, photochemical efficiency, changes of malondialdehyde content, and the activities of some antioxidant enzymes were investigated in four Iranian grapevine cultivars. MeJA improved morphological traits containing dry and fresh weight, node number, and shoot length. MeJA induced an oxidative stress, as shown by an increase in lipid peroxidation. Activities of catalase, peroxidase, and ascorbate peroxidase were higher in MeJA-treated grapevines than in controls while the relative water content and leaf water loss of grapevine cultivars demonstrated a non-significant difference between the control and varying levels of MeJA. MeJA was positively affected in recovery of the leaf chlorophyll fluorescence (photochemical efficiency) of grapevine cultivars, although the mean proline content of MeJA-treated grapevines indicated a significant decrease when compared with those of the controls. These results suggest that MeJA could act as an intervener in grapevine responses by the enhancing the activity of antioxidants and recovery of photochemical efficiency, leading to enhanced grapevine performance.