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Acta Prataculturae Sinica ›› 2026, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (2): 68-82.DOI: 10.11686/cyxb2025081

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Drought resistance evaluation of seed germination and seedling growth of seven alfalfa cultivars

Ji-yuan ZHANG1(), Hai-quan AN2, Jing-yi PAN1, Chang LIU1, Si-si LONG1, Li-li ZHAO1()   

  1. 1.Department of Grassland Science,College of Animal Science,Guizhou University,Guiyang 550025,China
    2.Anshun Animal Husbandry Technology Promotion Station,Anshun 561000,China
  • Received:2025-03-11 Revised:2025-04-29 Online:2026-02-20 Published:2025-12-24
  • Contact: Li-li ZHAO

Abstract:

In this research a 15% polyethylene glycol-6000 (PEG-6000) solution was employed to simulate drought stress and test germination and seedling growth responses to drought of seven alfalfa (Medicago sativa) cultivars, namely, Phabulous, Gladiator, PANGO, Magnum 801, WL525, Victoria, and Dieter, for 14 days. The responses and changes in seed germination, seedling growth, and physiological and biochemical indexes to drought stress were measured and analyzed in the laboratory. It was found that under drought stress, the germination index and vigor index of the six alfalfa seeds, except PANGO, decreased significantly (P<0.05). The dry weight, seedling length and root length of Phabulous and WL525 seedlings increased significantly (P<0.05). The relative water content of seedlings of Magnum 801, Victoria and Gladiator increased significantly (P<0.05). The peroxidase (POD) activity of the six cultivars, except Gladiator, increased significantly (P<0.05), and the malondialdehyde (MDA) content increased significantly (P<0.05) in all cultivars except Victoria. The superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity increased significantly (P<0.05) in Phabulous, Dieter, and Magnum 801. The proline (Pro) and soluble sugar (SS) content increased significantly (P<0.05) in Gladiator. Using data for 17 traits defining seed germination, seedling growth and physiology and biochemistry, a multivariate evaluation was conducted using principal component analysis combined with the membership function method. In this way, the drought resistance of the seven alfalfa cultivars during seed germination and early seedling growth was ranked from strong to weak as follows: Magnum 801>Gladiator>WL525>Victoria>PANGO>Dieter>Phabulous. According to a hierarchical cluster analysis, the cultivars were classified into three categories: 1) Strongly drought-resistant cultivars are ‘Magnum 801’; 2) Cultivars with medium drought-resistance are ‘Gladiator’, ‘WL525’ and ‘Victoria’; 3) Varieties with weak drought-resistance are ‘PANGO’, ‘Dieter’ and ‘Phabulous’.

Key words: alfalfa, seed germination, physiology, PEG-6000, drought resistance evaluation