Enhancement the performance of cowpea plants grown under drought conditions via trehalose application

A pot experiment was conducted during two successive summer seasons to evaluate the potential effect of foliar application of trehalose at different concentrations (0, 100 μM or 500 μM) in improving quality and quantity of cowpea plant grown under normal irrigation (95% field capacity); moderate or severe drought stress conditions (75% field capacity and 50% field capacity) . Treating cowpea plants with two trehalose concentrations resulted in marked increases in vegetative growth parameters (shoot height, number of leaves and branches/plant, weight of leaves and branches/plant), photosynthetic pigments (chlorophyll a, b, carotenoids), compatible solutes (trehalose, total soluble sugar, proline, free amino acids), phenolic content, components of carbohydrate content (glucose, sucrose, starch), activities of some antioxidant enzymes (catalase, superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, ascorbate peroxidase), seed yield and yield components in normal irrigated and drought stressed plants. It could be concluded that maximum increases were observed by treating plants with trehalose at 500 μM either under normal irrigation or drought conditions.