Antioxidative enzymes and biochemical changes in paclobutrazol induced flowering in mango (M. indica) cultivars

A study was conducted to examine the level of nonstructural carbohydrate, protein concentration and the activity of antioxidative enzymes viz. catalase and peroxidase in buds of different stages (Stages: I-before flower bud differentiation, II-flower bud differentiation, III-bud burst, IV-panicle elongation) and their adjacent leaves of biennial (Chausa, Dashehari, Langra) and the regular (Amrapali) cultivars. In the present study, Amrapali being the regular cultivar, contained higher levels of total and reducing sugar (4.49 to 12.67 mg g(-1) f.wt.) and protein content (1.90 to 6.78 mg g(-1)) in all the developmental stages of flowering as compared to biennial cultivars. However, in leaves gradual reduction in sugar and protein content was noticed in the advance stages of flowering. Paclobutrazol (2-8 g.a.i.), a flower inducing chemical, enhanced the catalase and peroxidase activities over the untreated control and maximum enhancement was recorded at 8 g.a.i. On the other hand, decreasing trend of protein with paclobutrazol treatment was recorded in adjacent leaves of flower buds. The results implicated the possible role of catalase and peroxidase and other associated biochemical changes in paclobutrazol induced flowering in mango.