Determination of the effects of nano silicone dioxside application on the tolerance of strawberry plants exposed to drought stress in vitro contitions

The increasing effect of climate change and global warming has a high impact on agricultural productivity and agricultural production practices that can increase resistance to drought gain importance. In this study, the effects of nano silicon dioxide application on the tolerance of strawberry plants exposed to drought stress in vitro conditions were investigated. In the experiment, the effects of 3 different PEG 6000 concentrations (0, 4, 8%) and two different nano silicon dioxide (SiO 2 ) concentrations (0, 50, 100 mg L -1 ) on Albion strawberry cultivars were investigated. Plants, which were developed by taking into meristem culture, were transferred to media containing different concentrations of PEG (0, 4, 8%) and Na SiO 2 (0, 50, 100 mg L -1 ) at the end of 4 weeks. Shoot, root weight, shoot length, root length, stem diameter, leaf number, leaf idth and leaf length were measured at the end of 4-5 weeks of growth period in order to evaluate the vegetative development of the treated plants. In the study, SOD and CAT enzyme activities and leaf proportional water content were determined in order to evaluate the effects of the applications on drought tolerance. The obtained data were evaluated with Duncan test in SPSS 22 package program and the differences between the results were determined at P <0.05 significance level. According to the results of the research, Na SiO 2 applied to the strawberry plant grown with tissue culture positively affects the vegetative development of the plant. Among different applications, high shoot weight (1.23 g) and root length (38 mm) 0% PEG + 100 mg L -1 SiO 2 application, root weight (1.57 g), plant stem diameter (9.52 mm), number of leaves (17 pieces / plant) and shoot length (57.85 mm) were reached with 0% PEG +50 mg L -1 application. When the SOD and CAT activity were examined, the highest SOD activity value was observed in the 6% PEG group (96.19 U / g TA), while the lowest value was measured in the control group (29.90 U / g TA). The highest CAT activity value was obtained from 8% PEG (0.98 U / g TA) application and the lowest value was obtained from the control group (0.27 U / g TA).