Evaluation of diverse cowpea [Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.] germplasm accessions for drought tolerance

Author(s):  
K.D. Nkoana ◽  
Abe Shegro Gerrano ◽  
E.T. Gwata

The genetic potential for drought tolerance in cowpea within the small holder sector has not been fully exploited in South Africa. Thus, a drought evaluation experiment was conducted at the ARC-VOP to evaluate 28 cowpea germplasm accessions including two controls viz. IT96D-602 (drought tolerant) and TVU7778 (susceptible to drought) in the drought screening house using plastic box evaluation method in January, 2017. Genotypes raised for three weeks were subjected to 5 weeks of water stress treatment to determine their physiological response through leaf wilting index, relative water content and proline content followed by re-watering to determine genotype (s) with ability to recover from drought stress. Analyses of variance showed highly significant differences in response to moisture stress among the cowpea accessions for the selected physiological traits except for leaf wilting index at week two of drought stress. Stem greenness and recovery appeared to be a reliable indicator of drought tolerant genotypes which was readily observed in Acc1257, Acc1168, Acc2355, IT96D-602 and Acc5352 which also correlated significantly and positively with relative water content and proline content. The genotypes responded differently to drought stress indicating that there is sufficient genetic variability that can be utilized further in breeding for drought stress within the cowpea species.

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Asunta Mukami ◽  
Alex Ngetich ◽  
Cecilia Mweu ◽  
Richard O. Oduor ◽  
Mutemi Muthangya ◽  
...  

AbstractDrought is the most perilous abiotic stress that affects finger millet growth and productivity worldwide. For the successful production of finger millet, selection of drought tolerant varieties is necessary and critical stages under drought stress, germination and early seedling growth, ought to be fully understood. This study investigated the physiological and biochemical responses of six finger millet varieties (GBK043137, GBK043128, GBK043124, GBK043122, GBK043094 and GBK043050) under mannitol-induced drought stress. Seeds were germinated on sterile soil and irrigated with various concentrations of mannitol (200, 400 and 600 mM) for two weeks. Comparative analysis in terms of relative water content (RWC), chlorophyll, proline, and malondialdehyde (MDA) contents were measured the physiological and biochemical characteristics of drought stress. The results showed that increased level of drought stress seriously decreased germination and early seedling growth of finger millet varieties. However, root growth was increased. In addition, exposition to drought stress triggered a significant decrease in relative water content and chlorophyll content reduction the biochemical parameters assay showed less reduction of relative water content. Furthermore, oxidative damage indicating parameters such as proline concentration and MDA content increased. Varieties GBK043137 and GBK043094 were less affected by drought as shown by significant change in the physiological parameters. Our findings reveal the difference and linkage between the physiological responses of finger millet to drought and are vital for breeding and selection of drought tolerant varieties of finger millet. Further investigations on genomic and molecular to deeply insight the detail mechanisms of drought tolerance in finger millet need to explored.


Genetika ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 44 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-32 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad Golparvar

Mode of gene action, heritability and determination of the effective breeding strategy for improvement of physiological and traits specifically in drought stress conditions is very important. Therefore, this study was conducted by using two drought susceptible and tolerant wheat cultivars. Cultivars Sakha8 (tolerant) and Pishtaz (susceptible) as parents along with F1, F2, BC1 and BC2 generations were sown in a randomized complete block design with three replications in drought stress conditions. Results of analysis of variance indicated significant difference between generations as well as degree of dominance revealed over-dominance for the both traits. Fitting simple additive-dominance model designated that this model was not able to account for changes of traits relative water content and mean of grain filling rate. It was revealed that m-d-h-i-j model for relative water content and m-d-h-i model for mean of grain filling rate are the best models. Estimation of heritability and mode of gene action indicated that selection for improvement of traits studied in stress condition and specifically in early generations have medium genetic gain. In conclusion, grain filling rate is better than relative water content as indirect selection criteria to improve plant grain yield in drought stress condition.


2019 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
pp. 75-84
Author(s):  
Alireza Motallebi-Azar ◽  
István Papp ◽  
Anita Szegő

Dehydrins are proteins that play a role in the mechanism of drought tolerance. This study aimed at establishing dehydrin profile and accumulation in four local melon varieties of Iran: Mino, Dargazi, Saveii, and Semsori, as well as in a commercial variety Honeydew. Plants were treated with drought stress by adjusting the soil water content to 75, 50, 40, 30 and 20% of field capacity (FC) by withholding water. Water status of plants was monitored based on the seedling fresh weight (FW) and relative water content of leaves (RWC). Total protein content was extracted, then heat-stable protein (HSP) fraction was isolated for each variety and water stress treatment. After SDS-PAGE of HSP, Western blotting analysis was carried out with Anti-dehydrin rabbit (primary) and Goat anti rabbit (secondary) antibodies. ANOVA results showed that with decreasing FC below 75%, FW and RWC decreased, but these changes significantly varied among genotypes. On the basis of FW and RWC data under different drought stress treatments, the following drought-tolerant ranking was established: Mino > Dargazi > Saveii and Honeydew > Semsori, from tolerant to sensitive order. Results of Western blot analysis showed that expression of some proteins with molecular weights of 19–52 kDa was induced in the studied varieties under drought stress (% FC). Expression level of the dehydrin proteins in different varieties was variable and also depending on the drought stress level applied. However, dehydrin proteins (45 and 50 kDa) showed strong expression levels in all varieties under severe drought stress (20% FC). The abundance of dehydrin proteins was higher in tolerant varieties (Mino and Dargazi) than in moderate and drought sensitive genotypes. Consequently, dehydrins represent a potential marker for selection of genotypes with enhanced drought tolerance.


2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 128-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Akte ◽  
S Yasmin ◽  
MJH Bhuiyan ◽  
F Khatun ◽  
J Roy ◽  
...  

Five rice varieties viz. Binadhan-4, Binadhan-5, Binadhan-6, Binadhan-10 and Iratom-24 were evaluated in vitro under different water stress conditions. Several parameters such as germination percentage, shoot length, root length, shoot-root ratio, fresh weight, dry weight, turgid weight, relative water content and proline accumulation were studied. Drought condition was created by MS medium supplemented with five treatments of PEG, with a control such as 0%, 1%, 2%, 3% and 4% of PEG. The highest germination (100%) was found in the variety Binadhan-10 under low water stress conditions induced by 1% PEG. Similarly, the highest percentage of germination was found in all varieties under control condition (0% PEG). The lowest percentage of germination was obtained in the variety Iratom-24. But under severe stress (4% PEG), the highest percentage of germination was found only in the variety Binadhan-10. Moreover, the variety Binadhan-10 was found to be the best at 4% PEG for shoot length, root length, shoot-root ratio, relative water content and also the best at 1% PEG for fresh weight, dry weight, turgid weight. Water stress decreased relative water content and increased proline accumulation in rice. The highest relative water content was recorded in the variety Binadhan-10 and the lowest value recorded in the variety Binadhan-5. The highest proline content was obtained from the binadhan-6 at the highest treatment (4% PEG). Binadhan-10 showed the best performance almost in all the parameters under drought stress because of its own nature of tolerancy.Progressive Agriculture 27 (2): 128-135, 2016


2020 ◽  
Vol 71 (9) ◽  
pp. 2713-2722 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haicui Xie ◽  
Jianqin Shi ◽  
Fengyu Shi ◽  
Haiyun Xu ◽  
Kanglai He ◽  
...  

Abstract Plants are routinely subjected simultaneously to different abiotic and biotic stresses, such as heat, drought, and insect infestation. Plant–insect interactions in such complex stress situations are poorly understood. We evaluated the performance of the grain aphid (Sitobion avenae) in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) exposed to a combination of heat and drought stresses. We also performed assays of the relative water content, nutritional quality, and responses of phytohormone signaling pathways. Lower relative water content and accumulation of soluble sugars and amino acids were observed in plants exposed to combined heat and drought stress. These conditions increased abscisic acid levels in the absence of aphids, as well as leading to higher levels of jasmonate-dependent transcripts. The grain aphid infestation further increased abscisic acid levels and the abundance of jasmonic acid- and salicylic acid-dependent defenses under the combined stress conditions. Aphids reared on plants grown under drought stress alone showed lower net reproductive rates, intrinsic rates of increase, and finite rates of increase compared with aphids reared on plants in the absence of stress. The heat-treated plants also showed a decreased aphid net reproductive rate. These findings demonstrate that exposure to a combination of stresses enhances plant defense responses against aphids as well as altering nutritional quality.


2014 ◽  
Vol 61 (4) ◽  
pp. 493-506 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maryam Goodarzian Ghahfarokhi ◽  
Syrus Mansurifar ◽  
Ruhollah Taghizadeh-Mehrjardi ◽  
Mohsen Saeidi ◽  
Amir Mohammad Jamshidi ◽  
...  

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-189
Author(s):  
Adewole Adebusola ◽  
Odjegba Victor ◽  
Iwuala Emmanuel ◽  
Afroz Alam

Nitrogen is an important nutrient for the successful metabolism of plants, but its occurrence in soil is always very limited. This nutrient has a significant role to preserve plants during various stress conditions by altering the production rate of phytochemicals as defense weapons. Hence, this study was carried out to analyze the effect of nitrogen supply on the phytochemical composition and relative water content in Jatropha curcas L. under a simulated drought condition. The selected seedlings were grown from stem cuttings and categorized into different treated three groups along with the control. After the completion of the experiment, the growth pattern and phytochemical production were investigated. An increased malondialdehyde activity (MDA) was reported with a reduction in relative water content (RWC) of the leaf and in the biomass of seedlings under drought stress. A significant decrease in the levels of alkaloids, phenol, flavonoids and tannins with an increase in saponins and terpenoids was also observed in only simulated drought stressed plants. While a significant increase in the levels of total alkaloid, tannins, flavonoids and phenols was observed in those plants where exogenous nitrogen was supplied before the start of drought periods, unlike in treated and control plants. Therefore, it was revealed that application of Nitrogen enabled the plants to possess protective mechanism through the production of phytochemicals that facilitate the cell membrane to reduce the detrimental effects caused by drought stress.


Author(s):  
Agustina Asri Rahmianna ◽  
Dan Joko Purnomo

Drought stress during generative stage affected pod yield, yield components, seed and pod qualities of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.). The reseach was carried out to assess the effect of drought stress at various soil water availabilities during generative stage on pod yield, pod and seed physical qualities. The experiment was conducted at Muneng Experimental Farm, Probolinggo District during July-October 2012. Five genotypes were arranged in a RCB design, with 3 replicates. The replications were nested into four treatments of soil water availability (0-100, 0-85, 0-70,0-55 days after sowing/DAS). The pods were harvested at 102 days after sowing. The result showed that the shorter the water availability, the lower the leaf relative water content, pod and seed water contents, number of mature pods, seed size, and intact seeds weight. Pod yield reduced when water was available upto 55 DAS only. Turangga variety had the highest pod yield (1.626 ton ha-1) with low pod and seed physical qualities. GH-51 yielded in 1.076 ton ha-1 with superior pod and seed physical qualities. Despite of its lowest pod yield (0.964 ton ha-1), J-11 produced the same pod and seed physical qualities as GH 51 did. ICGV 86590 was superior on its pod yield (1.338 ton ha-1) with low pod and seed physical qualities. Kancil variety did not perform any superiority.<br /><br />Keywords: intact seeds, leaf relative water content, pod moisture content, seed moisture content


2017 ◽  
Vol 62 (3) ◽  
pp. 213-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manal Hefny ◽  
Abdelraheim Ali ◽  
Tarek Byoumi ◽  
Mohamed Al-Ashry ◽  
Salah Okasha

Water scarcity is a universal environmental constraint for agricultural sustainability and production. Two field experiments were accomplished during the 2012 and 2013 growing seasons in two sites: the experimental farm of Suez Canal University, Ismailia and Romana Province, North Sinai, Egypt to evaluate 21 genotypes of maize comprising six inbred lines and their 15 F1 crosses for their drought tolerance. The experiments were arranged as a split-plot design with three replications, where moisture levels (100 and 50% of evapotranspiration) and maize genotypes were allocated to main plots and sub-plots, respectively. Results showed reduction in performance for most measured traits in response to water stress with varying degrees with yield plant-1 being the most affected. Inversely, proline and relative water content and anthesis-silking interval were increased. Correlation results confirmed the reduced grain yield with the increasing anthesis-silking interval, and suggested kernels row-1, relative water content, peroxidase activity and rows ear-1 in Ismailia, and rows ear-1, relative water content, peroxidase activity, kernel weight in Romana were indirect selection criteria for increasing yield in water scarcity environments. Principal component (PC) analysis showed that three PCs having Eigen value >1 explained 70.67 and 70.16%; 69.79 and 71.38% of the total variability among genotypes in control and stress conditions in Ismailia and Romana, respectively. The crosses P1?P3, P4?P6, P3?P5 and P1?P5 were classified as drought tolerant under Ismailia and Romana conditions. On the other hand, P1xP4, P3xP4, and P4 were considered as drought sensitive in Ismailia conditions. In addition, P5, P2?P4, P1?P4 and P5?P6 were the most affected by water deficiency under Romana conditions.


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