Physiological screening for drought tolerance traits in vegetable amaranth (Amaranthus tricolor) germplasm

Jamalluddin, Norain; Massawe, Festo J.; Mayes, Sean; Ho, Wai Kuan; Singh, Ajit; Symonds, Rachael C.

Abstract

Amaranth (Amaranthus tricolor), an underutilized climate smart crop, is highly nutritious and possesses diverse drought tolerance traits, making it an ideal crop to thrive in a rapidly changing climate. Despite considerable studies on the growth and physiology of plants subjected to drought stress, a precise trait phenotyping strategy for drought tolerance in vegetable amaranth is still not well documented. In this study, two drought screening trials were carried out on 44 A. tricolor accessions in order to identify potential drought-tolerant A. tricolor germplasm and to discern their physiological responses to drought stress. The findings revealed that a change in stem biomass was most likely the main mechanism of drought adaptation for stress recovery, and dark-adapted quantum yield (Fv/Fm) could be a useful parameter for identifying drought tolerance in amaranth. Three drought tolerance indices: geometric mean productivity (GMP), mean productivity (MP) and stress tolerance index (STI) identified eight drought-tolerant accessions with stable performance across the two screening trials. The highly significant genotypic differences observed in several physiological traits among the amaranth accessions indicate that the amaranth panel used in this study could be a rich source of genetic diversity for breeding purposes for drought tolerance traits.

Citation

Jamalluddin, N., Massawe, F. J., Mayes, S., Ho, W. K., Singh, A., & Symonds, R. C. (2021). Physiological screening for drought tolerance traits in vegetable amaranth (Amaranthus tricolor) germplasm. Agriculture, 11(10), Article 994. https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11100994

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Oct 9, 2021
• Online Publication Date: Oct 13, 2021
• Publication Date: Oct 1, 2021
• Deposit Date: Oct 14, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 18, 2021
• Journal: Agriculture (Switzerland)
• Electronic ISSN: 2077-0472
• Publisher: MDPI AG
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 11
• Issue: 10
• Article Number: 994
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3390/agriculture11100994
• Keywords: drought tolerance indices; plant physiological parameters; relative water content; chlorophyll a fluorescence parameters; photosynthetic leaf gas exchange; photosynthetic rate; stomatal conductance; intercellular CO2 concentration; transpiration rate
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/6460274
• Publisher URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/11/10/994