Molecular Basis of Drought Tolerance In Helianthus annus

Sunflower cultivated primarily for the seeds. The oil accounts for 80% of the value of the sunflower crop. This crop is drought tolerant, but it performs better when it is not stressed for water. Lack of water will result in reduced production and quality. One possible approach to reducing the effect of drought on plant productivity is through the addition of calcium and / or boron as foliar sprays. Boron, Calcium and Both of them. Drought induced a sharp decrease in seeds fresh weight, seeds protein content and number of filled seeds. Application of mixture of boron & calcium induced a significant increase in seeds weight and seeds lipids content. Boron separately was the best for seeds protein and soluble sugars content. Catalase expression was detected as a single band for all treatments where peroxidase isozymes were increased to 8 isozymes seven of these were expressed only with B treatment Generally, the RNA-DD showed a variation in gene expression between the control and the other treated droughted samples especially the B & Ca mixture.