Antioxidant potential of chili seedlings against anthracnose

Abstract

Introduction: Diseases and its causative pathogens are the remarkable challenges faced by a plant for its survival, eventually to cause severe food security problems. Host resistance is an eco-friendly approach which requires a depth understanding on host–pathogen interactions. During these interactions, a cascade of defense responsive antioxidants was induced by a pathogen with respect to the type of cultivar while causing a disease. These array of enzymes can be biochemically detected and aid as markers to identify the ability of the host to restrict the pathogen. This study was conducted to detect the Colletotrichum truncatum elicited defense responsive antioxidants among the seedlings of G-4, LCA-353, BSS-355, and S-2 chili cultivars. Materials and Methods: Chilli seedlings of 25 days old were spray inoculated with pathogen and after 7 days of infection their antioxidant potential was analyzed by estimating few enzymes, viz., phenylalanine ammonia lyase, polyphenol oxidase, superoxide dismutase, catalase, 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging activity, reducing power, and total phenol content. Results: Biochemical estimations revealed that G-4 cultivar to be a resistant variety showing increased production of defense induced enzymes in all parameters while in contrast BSS-355 remained as susceptible variety. Conclusion: Anthracnose induced antioxidative enzymes showed a significant correlation between the enzymes, unveiling G-4as resistant and BSS-355 to be the susceptible chili cultivar with the highest and lowest enzyme activities. Identified resistant cultivar can be used in anthracnose resistant breeding programs and also these enzymes can be employed as biochemical markers to screen the chili genotypes against anthracnose disease.