Balancing Osmotic Protection and Oxidative Stress: Physiological and Biochemical Responses of Pot Marigold (Calendula officinalis L.) Plants to Water Stress
Diana Ribeiro, Maria Rita Guzmán, Ana D Caperta, Isabel Marques, Cátia Brito, Lia-Tania Dinis · 2025
Read Balancing Osmotic Protection and Oxidative Stress: Physiological and Biochemical Responses of Pot Marigold (Calendula officinalis L.) Plants to Water Stress by Diana Ribeiro, Maria Rita Guzmán, Ana D Caperta, Isabel Marques, Cátia Brito, Lia-Tania Dinis (2025) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/pmc-12736827.txt.
Description
Pot marigold is a popular ornamental plant, but dry conditions can spoil its growth and looks. The authors grow the plants under controlled conditions for three weeks at full watering, moderate drought, and severe drought. They track growth and the plant's chemistry: water loss, protective compounds, damage markers, and the enzymes that fight oxidation. Drought cuts leaf number by a third under moderate stress and by half under severe stress, and leaves grow shorter as well.
Under severe drought, the plants stockpile the osmolyte proline and switch on their antioxidant enzymes, while damage markers rise in parallel. Carotenoid content falls under stress. The response looks like a balance act: osmotic adjustment plus stronger defenses hold damage in check for a while. Under long severe drought, though, the defenses cannot stop biomass loss. The authors conclude the species stays vulnerable where water is scarce.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Diana Ribeiro, Maria Rita Guzmán, Ana D Caperta, Isabel Marques, Cátia Brito, Lia-Tania Dinis |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2025 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 43 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |