RESPONSE OF GROWTH, YIELD AND RAFFINOSE FAMILY OLIGOSACCHARIDES (RFOS) IN PEA SEEDS TO DROUGHT

Water scarcity, along with thermal extremes, are the most widespread devastating environmental stress that limit growth, productivity and quality of crops in arid and semi-arid areas. Hence, satisfactory production under these undesirable conditions necessitates the application of anti-stress compounds. A split plot design with three replicates was used to study the effect of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) and glycinebetaine (GB) on the growth, productivity, quality and anti-nutritional factor (Raffinose oligosaccharides family) of green pea (Pisum sativum L.) cv. Master B under full irrigation and water deficit regime i.e, at vegetative stage (D1), flowering stage (D2) and vegetative + flowering stages (D3) during 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 seasons at El-Baramoun farm, Mansoura Horticulture Research Station, Dakahlia Governorate, Egypt. Results revealed that chilling and drought stresses, particularly D3 significantly decreased vegetative growth parameters, chlorophyll content, relative water content, water retention capacity, pod yield component and seed quality, however, increased raffinose and stachyose compared with the full irrigation. The flowering phase was more sensitive to water shortage than the vegetative growth one. Impairing effects of drought and cold stresses were significantly alleviated by application of ATP and GB. Often ATP was more superior to GB under cold temperature condition, while their effect is equal under drought conditions. Despite RFOs importance as a compatible solutes and carbohydrate storage, they are poorly digested by humans and monogastric animals. Therefore, its decline in pea seeds as a result of ATP and GB treatments is considered one of the positive results in this study.