Physiological alteration in gladiolus flower during senescence as affected by abscisic acid

Basic of senescence in ethylene insensitive flower has long stayed as a mystery and we proposed ABA as a key player in this process. The present study was carried out using gladiolus var. Snow Princess to understand the role of abscisic acid (ABA) for senescence in flower at biochemical level. Present study has provided the initial evidence that exogenously applied ABA (100 μM) accelerate the senescence process by enhancing the activity of several senescence processes such as lipid peroxidation and lipoxygenase activity. On the contrary, the antioxidant enzymatic activity was reduced, viz. superoxide dismutase, catalase, peroxidase, ascorbate peroxidase and glutathione reductase, in petal tissue. Supplementation of GA₃ in the vase solution having ABA reversed various senescence related parameters, which were down or upregulated by ABA proving its role in senescence of gladiolus flowers.