Drought stress is one of the major abiotic stresses in agriculture worldwide. Drought also produces Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS), triggering a cascade of antioxidative defense mechanisms, and affects many other metabolic processes. It triggers a wide variety of plant responses ranging from physiological, biochemical to molecular levels. The primary challenge for increasing rice production is overcoming a global water shortage, which can severely limit rice yields. In the present study, response of drought stressed plants to abscisic acid (ABA) on antioxidant activities CAT, POD, APX, SOD were studied. The growth was gradually increased with increasing concentrations of ABA. The growth of plant, fresh weight, dry weight and relative water content was higher in the 200 mM abscisic acid. The photosynthetic pigments such as chlorophyll a, b and carotenoids content were increased in the 200 mM ABA as compared to the treated plants and control. The result indicates that increased growth in the 200 mM abscisic acid treated plants compared to control plants due to enhanced antioxidant activities.
Key Words: Abscisic acid, Oryza sativa, Drought, Antioxidant metabolism.