Enhancing Drought Stress Tolerance in Prilep Tobacco Plants with Melatonin Treatment

In this work, we studied the effect of treatment with melatonin at concentrations (50, 100 and 150 micromolar) on some biochemical and production characteristics of Prilep tobacco plants under conditions of applied drought stress (15%, 30% and 45%).

Chlorophyll content in leaves decreased under conditions of drought stress, and H2O2, proline, MDA and Total Soluble Sugars increased steadily with increasing applied stress, while Chlorophyll, total soluble sugars content in leaves increased when sprayed with melatonin, especially at low concentrations (50 micromolar).

The treatment with the reduced concentration of melatonin and the applied stress outperformed all treatments and the control for all indicators studied. Therefore, it is recommended to use melatonin, especially at a concentration of 50 micromolar, on tobacco plants because of its role in improving chemical traits under conditions of drought stress.