Comparison of drought resistance strategies among populations of Solanum chilense
(2018) XIII reunion de Biologia Vegetal — Location: Puerto Varas (3.December.2018)
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- Abstract
- Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is the second most highly produced vegetable crop worldwide and unfavourable environmental conditions such as drought significantly limit plant growth and productivity in this species. Although important sources of variation for drought tolerance exist in wild relatives, the mechanisms and the key genes controlling tolerance in tomato are little known. The elucidation of tolerance strategies in wild relatives living in dry zones is a powerful approach to understand local adaptations for potential crop improvement. Solanum chilense is able to cope with harsh environment in its area of origin and could represent an abundance of genetic diversity for tomato improvement. However, physiological basis of drought tolerance in Solanum chilense has received only minor attention until now. The aim of our research is to study the changes mediated by drought acclimation in Solanum chilense in order to highlight morphological and physiological basis of drought tolerance in this species during vegetative and reproductive stages. Six populations of Solanum chilense belonging to different phylogenetic groups and growing in contrasted habitats were compared. Plants were grown under greenhouse conditions in Belgium and for each population, half of the plants were regularly watered and the other half were watered each two weeks. The number of leaves produced were overall 25% lower for water-stressed plants compared with control plants and differed among population. The flowering time was also highly divergent among populations. Most physiological parameters (chlorophyll fluorescence, gaz exchanges, chlorophyll content, stomatal conductance,…) differed according to the water treatment. For physiological parameters, the main inter-population differences were observed between a coastal population in Peru and a population located in the Acatama desert. Our first results suggest local and population adaptation to drought in Solanum chilense.
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Citations
Bigot, S., Blanchard-Gros, R., Juan-Pablo Martinez, & Quinet, M. (2018). Comparison of drought resistance strategies among populations of Solanum chilense. XIII reunion de Biologia Vegetal, Puerto Varas.