Physiological Regulation and Alleviation Effect of Melatonin on Leymus Chinensis Seedlings Under Drought Stress.

ABSTRACT: Drought limits forage productivity and causes physiological dysfunction in plants. Melatonin (MT) can enhance stress tolerance, but the optimal dose and the mechanisms by which it mitigates drought-induced physiological and metabolic disturbances in Leymus chinensis remain unclear. A pot experiment under controlled soil moisture was conducted to screen the optimal MT dose for alleviating drought stress in L. chinensis seedlings and to elucidate the key physiological and metabolic mechanisms involved. Adding 100 μM MT significantly improved growth and photosynthetic performance under drought (p < 0.05). Specifically, DM100 increased plant height, root length, stem diameter, aboveground fresh weight (FW), aboveground dry weight (DW), and leaf relative water content (RWC) by 51.91%, 20.95%, 3

SUBMITTER: Hu T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12745666 | biostudies-literature | 2026 Jan-Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature