Effect of Drought Stress on Proline Accumulation and Mineral Nutrients Changes in Alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.)

Drought stress is one of the most important environmental stresses in reduce of growth and plants production. Determination of resistance mechanisms to environmental stress in plant improvement is very important. In order to , experiment with osmotic potentials of PEG (zero (control), -4, -8 & -12 bar) and alfalfa genotypes was done. The selected alfalfa genotypes namely, Yazdi(tolerant), Nikshahri(moderate) and Ranger(sensitive) were grown in hydroponic culture. After 4 weeks, they were harvested in order to determination of proline accumulation and Ca+2, K+ and Na+ concentration. The data showed with increasing of drought stress, proline accumulation were increased, but its rate was different among genotypes and organelles. Concentrations of K+, Na+ and Ca2+ increased with increasing of osmotic stress and there was significant different between genotypes. The K+/Na+ ratio in the shoots and roots of plant was decreased, when drought stress increased. Morphological and biochemical data showed Yazdi genotype was more tolerant to drought stress in compare with studied genotypes.