The effects of drought stress on fatty acods contents in pineapple (Ananas comosus)

Abstract

Environmental stresses give huge impact on crops growth and productivity. Among the environmental stresses, drought stress cause greater impacts on the yields production of crops. Thus, this study was conducted to determine the effects of drought stress on fatty acids of pineapple (Ananas comosus). Pineapple plantlets were treated in different concentrations of PEG 4000 (0%, 2%, 4% and 6%) in MS media for four weeks. The biomass of the plantlets after treatments and dried were recorded. The total lipids were obtained by extraction process. The fatty acid content was determined using Gas chromatography. Palmitic and stearic acids were recorded at four weeks of treatment. The fatty acids contents were decreased as the PEG concentrations increased. The highest reduction was recorded in 6% of PEG 4000 treatments, 19.55%, lower than the control. The fatty acids contents of pineapple were significantly affected by the drought stress. Through this finding, further development for future food security can be achieved by extracting a new gene that can resist towards drought stress.