Leaf Traits and Antioxidant Defense for Drought Tolerance During Early Growth Stage in Some Popular Traditional Rice Landraces from Koraput, India

Three popular traditional rice landraces, namely Kalajeera, Machakanta and Haladichudi, from Koraput, India were used to analyse the leaf traits and antioxidant defence for drought tolerance. When rice plants were exposed to different levels of drought stress by varying concentrations of polyethylene glycol (PEG) 6000, seed germination and growth parameters were significantly declined in all the rice landraces compared to the control. Drought stress also altered the leaf phenotypic traits based on chlorophyll fluorescence parameters and chlorophyll index, with more significant differences in susceptible variety IR64 than in traditional landraces. Furthermore, activities of antioxidative enzymes and proline and protein contents overtly increased under drought stress. The traditional rice landraces showed higher relative ratios for different parameters compared to the susceptible variety IR64. Taken together, the traditional landraces had superior leaf physiological efficiency compared to the susceptible and tolerant check varieties under drought stress.