Abstract:
Arachis hypogaea (peanut) is one of the important crops of family Leguminosae. It is a crop of
semi-arid regions and its yield is affected by various environmental stresses specifically drought,
leading to serious production losses. Better understanding of stress responses is critical to
improve tolerant of crops. Two subclasses of flavonoids, flavonols and chalcones have diverse
roles in plant defense and their synthesis is catalyzed by FLS and CHS respectively. CHS is the
first enzyme that catalyzes flavonoid biosynthetic pathway while FLS catalyzes late reactions in
this pathway. However, a little information about their behavior in peanut is available. In the
present study, the expression of these two flavonoid biosynthetic genes is analyzed. Results
indicated that RNA transcript level of both genes was up regulated under drought stress in peanut
variety BARI-2011. The maximum RNA transcript level was after ten days under severe drought
stress while maximum FLS expression was observed after ten days under of mild drought stress
in set experimental conditions. Current study suggests the protective role of flavonoids against
drought. However, functions of flavonoid biosynthetic genes involved in defense role against
drought stress need further validation
