ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.

Sec. Plant Abiotic Stress

Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1589706

Exogenous acetylsalicylic acid mitigates cold stress in common bean seedlings by enhancing antioxidant defense and photosynthetic efficiency

Provisionally accepted
Barkat  AliBarkat Ali1Sujon  KumarSujon Kumar2Xiyu  SuiXiyu Sui1Jianpo  NiuJianpo Niu1Junqi  YangJunqi Yang1Mengni  ZhengMengni Zheng1Yi  TangYi Tang1Huanxiu  LiHuanxiu Li1*
  • 1College of Horticulture, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China
  • 2Triticeae Research Institute, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Cold stress severely limits the growth and productivity of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) seedlings, particularly during early development. Exogenous application of acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) has proven to be an effective strategy for enhancing cold tolerance.Cold stress is a major environmental constraint that severely hinders the growth and productivity of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) seedlings, specifically during the initial growing periods. To overcome these challenges of cold stress, the application of exogenous acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) has emerged as a favorable strategy to improve cold tolerance. This study investigates the usefulness of exogenous acetylsalicylic acid (ASA) in enhancing cold tolerance in common bean seedlings exposed to cold stress of 5°C for 12 and 24 hours, along with a control (0h).ASA treatments (1 mM and 2 mM) significantly improved critical physiological and biochemical parameters, including photosynthesis, chlorophyll and carotenoid concentrations, oxidative stress markers, malondialdehydeMalondialdehyde, electrical conductivity, total soluble proteins (MDA, EC, SP), and antioxidant enzyme activity. Under cold stress, ASA2 constantly outperformed the other treatments.Following a 12-hour period, ASA2 showed increased chlorophyll concentrations (8.88%) and augmented Chl a levels (21.25%), alongside reducing MDA by 24.96% and SP by 67.1%. After 24 hours, ASA2 demonstrated a slight increase in chlorophyll (4.26%) and raised Chla Chl a (25.33%), with a significant reduction in MDA (16.5%) and SP (68.3%). ASA1 showed enhancements, mainly in Chl b (39.89% at 12 h) and antioxidant enzymes, with notable increases in SOD (113.17% at 12 h) and POD (110.98% at 12 h). Correlation studies indicated significant positive relationships between antioxidant enzyme activity such as, superoxide dismutase, catalase, peroxidase, ascorbate peroxidase (SOD, CAT, POD, and APX) and photosynthetic

Keywords: acetylsalicylic acid, cold stress, Physiochemical activity, Antioxidant Enzymes, common bean

Received: 07 Mar 2025; Accepted: 26 May 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Ali, Kumar, Sui, Niu, Yang, Zheng, Tang and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Huanxiu Li, College of Horticulture, Sichuan Agricultural University, Chengdu, China

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