[Objective] Jishu 21 with strong drought tolerance and Jizishu 1 with weak drought tolerance were chosen to reveal antioxidant characteristics in seedling roots of sweetpotato with different drought tolerance. [Method] Active oxygen, antioxidant substances and antioxidant enzymes in seedling roots of sweetpotato with different drought tolerance were analyzed by hydroponics with PEG-6000 for simulating drought stress in the experiment. [Result] The results showed that under drought stress, H202 content and formation rate of 02_ in seedling roots of Jizishul were higher than Jishu 21 by 1.9% and 102.6%, respectively, the contents of Vc in seed- ing roots of Jizishu 1 and Jizishu 1 increased by 25.3% and 81.1%, respectively, and the contents of polyphenols increased by 24.8% and 37.6% in the two vari- eties, respectively. The increase amplitudes of Jizishu 1 were higher than Jishu 21 in the above indexes. Antioxidant enzyme activities were higher in seedling roots of Jisl^u 21 and Jizishul under drought stress than normal treatments; and among them, POD activity was the highest, while PPO activity was the lowest in all an- tioxidant enzymes. The increases of SOD, POD, APX and PPO activities in Jishu 21 were twice of those in Jizishul. The bands of SOD3, POD2, CAT1, APX2 and PPO2 changed obviously between the drought treatments of the two varieties. [Con- clusion] In conclusion, stronger drought tolerance in sweetpotato results in lower in- crease amplitudes of H202 content, formation rate of 02- and contents of Vc and polyphenols under drought stress, and the activities of antioxidant enzymes are stronger in seeding roots under drought stress; and the differences in antioxidant enzymes are mainly related to the changes of isoenzymes including SOD3, POD2, CAT1. APX2 and PPO2.
