Antioxidant response to drought in red and white clover

Antioxidant response to drought in red (Trifolium pratense L., cv. “Start”) and white clover (Trifolium repens L, cv. “Haifa” and cv. “Debut”) grown as soil cultures was evaluated in water-deprived and recovered plants. Drought provoked oxidative stress in leaves confirmed by the considerable changes in electrolyte leakage, malondialdehyde, hydrogen peroxides and proline contents. Immunoblot of Δ-1-pyrroline-5-carboxylate synthetase (P5CS), which catalyzes the first two steps in proline biosynthesis, revealed strong induction of the enzyme in red clover plants submitted to drought. Water-deprived white clover plants exhibited distinct P5CS profiles. This was related to different drought tolerance of the studied T. repens cultivars. Isoenzyme analyses of superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POX) and catalase (CAT) demonstrated certain differences in antioxidant defence among the tested varieties. It was confirmed that MnSOD (in both T. repens and T pratense) and FeSOD (in T. repens) isoforms were the most affected by drought. The red clover cultivar “Start” exhibited the lowest FeSOD and POX activities which could contribute to its poor performance under water deprivation.