Anti-oxidative response of different wheat genotypes to drought during anthesis

The aim of this work was to study drought effects on lipid peroxidation, antioxidant compounds, and anti-oxidative enzymes activities in two tolerant (daric and 92 zhong), two moderately tolerant (sabalan and dh-2049-3) and two sensitive (shark and tevees) wheat genotypes. malondialdehyde content and electrolyte leakage increased significantly (p<0.05) in flag leaves under drought. the increase was higher in sensitive genotypes compared to the others. protective enzymes activities (ascorbate peroxidase, peroxidase, superoxide dismutase, catalase and glutathione reductase) and non- enzymatic antioxidants contents (ascorbate and glutathione) increased under drought stress and this increase was higher in tolerant genotypes. there were significant positive correlations (p<0.05) between anti-oxidative enzyme activities and non- enzymatic antioxidants. it seems that peroxidase and superoxide dismutase - that showed higher increase under stress- had an important role in drought tolerance.