Progressive drought impact on Eruca sativa Mill.: a kinetic approach
(2025) South African Journal of Botany — Vol. 184, p. 748-760 (2025)
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- Authors
Barris, Selma 
- Abstract
- Plants facing drought stress in natural conditions are exposed to a progressive decrease in soil water content. The sequence of physiological events leading to plant response is important to depict in order to assess the timing of injury symptoms appearance. Plants of Eruca sativa Mill. were exposed for one month to a progressive decrease in soil moisture. Control plants were maintained at 80 % of field capacity while soil water content dropped to 43.5 % of field capacity in stressed one. All plants remained alive but 50 % of stressed plants encountered a premature flowering and inhibition of vegetative growth. Accumulations of proline and glycinebetaine were the first responses to water shortage reaching up to 51.2 and 38.3 μmoles.g-1 DW respectively after already one week of treatment. This was not sufficient to induce an immediate decrease in osmotic potential which dropped to -2.6 MPa after 4 weeks of treatment only. Water potential decreased before osmotic potential exhibiting values of -0.97 MPa after only two weeks of stress. An increase in total antioxidant activities was noticed already after one week of treatment but most endogenous antioxidant (glutathione, ascorbate, flavonoids and anthocyanin) accumulated after 3 weeks of treatment and did not avoid malondialdehyde and H2O2 accumulation. Photosynthesis inhibition was recorded after two weeks and attributable to a decrease in stomatal conductance (188 mol H2O m-2 s-1 in stressed plants versus 304 in control ones). Instantaneous water use efficiency, Chla/Chlb ratios and fluorescence-related parameters remained unaffected by water stress. During the 3 first weeks of treatment, water shortage had a limited impact on leaf water content but it strongly decreased the relative water content during the last week of treatment. It is concluded that Eruca sativa can trigger adaptative strategy at the beginning of the stress period but that some of them may be overwhelmed after a long-time exposure. This species presents an optimal compromise between drought escape and water-saving strategies.
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Citations
Barris, S., Belkhebir, A., Vanpee, B., Toumi, M., Aïd, F., & Lutts, S. (2025). Progressive drought impact on Eruca sativa Mill.: a kinetic approach. South African Journal of Botany, 184, 748-760. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sajb.2025.06.043 (Original work published 2025)