Open Access

ARTICLE

Water Stress Mitigation in Melon: Effectiveness of Stress Attenuating Agents and Selection of Tolerant Cultivars

Emerson de Medeiros de Sousa^1,#, Salvador Barros Torres^2,#, Marciana Bizerra de Morais^3,#, Clarisse Pereira Benedito², Kleane Targino Oliveira Pereira², Moadir de Sousa Leite², Maria Valdiglezia de Mesquita Arruda², Jéssica Christie Dantas de Oliveira Costa², Roseane Rodrigues de Oliveira², Giovanna Dias de Sousa², Cynthia Cavalcanti de Albuquerque³, Marco Porceddu⁴, Gianluigi Bacchetta⁴, Francisco Vanies da Silva Sá^5,*

1 Rio Grande do Norte State Institute of Education, Science and Technology, IP Parelhas, Parelhas, RN, Brazil
2 Department of Agronomic and Forestry Sciences, Federal Rural University of the Semi-arid—UFERSA, Mossoró, RN, Brazil
3 Department of Biological Sciences, State University of Rio Grande do Norte, Mossoró, RN, Brazil
4 Center for the Conservation of Biodiversity (CCB), Department of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Cagliari, V.le Sant’Ignazio da Laconi, 9/11, Cagliari, Italy
5 Department of Agrarian and Exact Sciences, State University of Paraiba, Sítio Cajueiro, Catolé do Rocha, PB, Brazil

* Corresponding Author: Francisco Vanies da Silva Sá. Email:
# These authors contributed equally to this work

Phyton-International Journal of Experimental Botany 2026, 95(5), 13 https://doi.org/10.32604/phyton.2026.078410

Received 30 December 2025; Accepted 25 February 2026; Issue published 27 May 2026

Abstract

Semiarid regions are frequently affected by low water availability, which hinders the development of horticultural species such as melon (Cucumis melo L.). In this context, techniques that enhance drought tolerance are essential for more effective crop management. This study aimed to evaluate the tolerance and antioxidant activity of different melon cultivars using seed pre-treatment with stress-attenuating agents. The experiment was conducted in two stages, both arranged in a completely randomized design with four replicates of 50 seeds. In the first stage, a 3 × 5 factorial scheme was used, combining three levels of water deficit (0.0, −0.15, and −0.3 MPa) and five melon cultivars (“Dali”, “Premier”, “Supreme”, “Imperial 45”, and “Asturia”). The second stage consisted of the two previously selected cultivars (one sensitive and one tolerant), subjected to combinations of water deficit and attenuating agents: T1 = 0.0 MPa (control), T2 = −0.15 MPa (water deficit), T3 = −0.15 MPa + hydropriming (12 h), T4 = −0.15 MPa + gibberellic acid, T5 = −0.15 MPa + ascorbic acid, T6 = −0.15 MPa + salicylic acid, and T7 = −0.15 MPa + hydrogen peroxide. In the first stage, morphological and biochemical variables were evaluated. In the second stage, the same variables were analyzed, along with citrulline content, hydrogen peroxide and malondialdehyde levels, and the activity of superoxide dismutase, catalase, and ascorbate peroxidase. Overall, salicylic acid mitigated the effects of water stress on germination, seedling length, and dry mass in the cultivar Dali. For the sensitive cultivar (Imperial 45), hydrogen peroxide reduced the production and accumulation of H₂O₂, mainly through the action of the enzymatic antioxidant system, resulting in improved germination performance under water deficit.

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Supplementary Material

Supplementary Material File

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