Data Sheet 2_Dose-dependent gibberellic acid and benzylaminopurine priming coordinates transcriptional and metabolic reprogramming, enhancing photochemical efficiency to confer drought tolerance in pigeonpea.xlsx

Exogenous application of hormonal and nonhormonal elicitors, have emerged as promising strategies to improve plant resilience to changing climatic conditions.</p>Methods<p>In the current study, the effect of foliar application of gibberellic acid (GA₃) and 6–benzylaminopurine (6–BAP) individually and in combination was assessed at different doses (0.2 and 0.4 mM) in pigeonpea (Cajanus cajan) under drought stress through integrated physiological, metabolomic and transcriptomic approaches.</p>Results<p>Growth, photosynthetic performance and metabolic homeostasis were severely affected by drought stress.

The combined application of 0.4 mM GA3+6-BAP resulted in 20.6%, 29.7% and 33.2% increase in the maximum quantum efficiency of PSII (Fv/Fm), ΔpH, and ΔΨ, respectively, compared to untreated drought-stressed plants, which shows that the stability of PSII and the energy regulation of the thylakoids improved with combined phytohormone application. Untargeted metabolite profiling revealed that drought reduced the abundance of metabolites belonging to carbohydrates, lipids and organoheterocyclic compounds respectively.