Table 1 Effect of SPM on total biomass (g) in water deprived sweet corn genotypes (n = 3). Different small letters indicate significant differences (p ≤ 0.05) among the treatments of each genotype, and different capital letters indicate significant differences (p ≤ 0.05) among genotypes within each treatment. Specific Leaf Area (SLA): SPM had genotype-dependent effects on SLA under normal conditions, increasing SLA in dessert and Messenger while decreasing it in Tyson and Royalty. PEG-induced water deprivation significantly reduced SLA across all genotypes, with reductions of up to 73.8% in Tyson under 12% PEG. However, SPM application under PEG treatments effectively mitigated these reductions, resulting in substantial increases in SLA, particularly a 272.6% improvement in Tyson under 12% PEG (Table 2).

From: Spermine driven water deficit tolerance in early growth phases of sweet corn genotypes under hydroponic cultivation