Evaluation of some physiological parameters and antioxidant enzymes in two rose cultivars ("Pearl" and "Angelina") under Agrobacterium tumefaciens strees

Biotic and abiotic stresses lead to the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in plants, damage to the host plant, reduction of its strength, and sometimes plant death. Cut flower rose is one of the most popular ornamental plants, suffering from crown gall caused by Agrobacterium tumefaciens. In order to investigate the activity of some antioxidant enzymes and physiological characteristics in two cultivars of cut roses, A. tumefaciens inoculation was performed as a factorial design in a completely randomized design with three replications at the time of grafting by stenting method in Shahrekord university research greenhouse in September 2020. Treatments include contamination (Agrobacterium suspension inoculation and water inoculation) as the first factor and cultivar treatment (Angelina and Pearl) as the second factor. Three months after grafting, results show that the effect of cultivar/infection interaction has significant effect on ion leakage, proline, and guaiacol peroxidase at the level of one percent probability. The highest levels of soluble sugars, MDA and protein are observed in infected samples, 298.6 (μg/g Fw), 488.6 (µmolg-1 Fw) and 36.7 (mg/g Fw), respectively and the highest RWC and leaf area in healthy samples are 68.5% and 21.5 (cm2). In this study, inoculation of the crown gall lead to active oxygen species and oxidative stress, causing some changes in lipids, soluble sugars, and total protein.