Figure 5. Effect of drought stress on the growth, osmotic adjustment and chlorophyll content of mtlD transgenic finger millet plants.

Drought stress was imposed to 15 day old plants (T₁ generation) by gradually withholding irrigation in such a way that the soil moisture reaches to 50% FC in one week. Later, plants were exposed to severe stress (50% or 20% FC) for 7 days. Photographs (line mtlD-1 T₁) were taken at the end of the stress (A). Stress tolerance of the transgenic plants exposed to 50% FC was analyzed by measuring osmotic adjustment (B) and percent reduction in chlorophyll over respective controls (C). Each bar represents the mean of standard error values (n = 5). Asterisks indicate values are statistically significant (student's t test; p<0.05) versus corresponding wild-type. Values mentioned in the picture represent respective filed capacity.