Title
Improving potato drought tolerance through the induction of long-term water stress memory
Date Issued
01 September 2015
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
journal article
Publisher(s)
Elsevier Ireland Ltd.
Abstract
Knowledge of drought tolerance in potato is limited and very little is known about stress memory in this crop. In the present study, long-term stress memory was tested on tuber yield and drought tolerance related traits in three potato varieties (Unica, Désirée and Sarnav) with contrasted yields under water restriction. Seed tubers produced by plants grown under non-restricted (non-primed tubers) and restricted (primed tubers) water conditions were sown and exposed to similar watering treatments. Tuber yield and leaf greenness of plants from primed and non-primed seeds as well as tuber carbon isotope discrimination (δ13C) and antioxidant activity (AA) responses to watering treatments were compared. Higher tuber yield, both under non-restricted and restricted water regimes, was produced by primed Sarnav plants. The decrease of tuber yield and δ13C with water restriction was lower in primed Unica plants. Long-term stress memory consequently appears to be highly genotype-dependent in potato. Its expression in plants originated from primed tubers and facing water restriction seems to be positively associated to the degree of inherent capability of the cultivar to yield under water restriction. However, other effects of priming appear to be genotype-independent as priming enhanced the tuber AA in response to water restriction in the three varieties.
Start page
26
End page
32
Volume
238
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Agricultura
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-84930943825
PubMed ID
Source
Plant Science
ISSN of the container
01689452
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus