To investigate the infuence of jasmonic acid (JA) on morpho-physiological and biochemical characteristics of strawberry cv. Queen Elisa, under in vitro PEG-induced water stress, a factorial experiment based on completely randomized design (CRD) was conducted. PEG-induced water stress was imposed using polyethylene glycol (PEG6000) at three levels (0, 5 and 7% w/v), under three levels of JA application (0, 0.01 and 0.05 mM). The results indicated that PEG-induced water stress negatively impacted all studied morphological traits except for shoot fresh and dry weight. Furthermore, PEG-induced water stress had a decreasing efect on physiological traits including relative water content (RWC), photosynthesis pigments, membrane-stability index (MSI), and total proteins while it increased the activity of peroxidase (POD) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) enzyme and the content of malondialdehyde (MDA), hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), and proline. JA application showed an interaction efect with PEG-induced water stress on all studied traits except for SOD, POD, and total carbohydrate. Besides, based on the heat-map and principal component analysis results, three distinct groups were observed for physio-biochemical traits. Accordingly, the most efective treatment was the application of 0.05 mM JA under non-stressed condition. Altogether, the strawberry plants treated with higher JA concentrations could efectively cope with PEG-induced water stress adverse efects. Meanwhile, JA application improved strawberry growth attributes under both stress and nonstress conditions. In conclusion, the application of JA can be suggested as an efective way to alleviate deleterious impacts dehydration stress on strawberry under in vitro conditions
