Abstract
Bermudagrass (Cynodon dactylon) is a widely used warm-season turfgrass and one of the most drought tolerant species. Dissecting the natural variation in drought tolerance and physiological responses will bring us powerful basis and novel insight for plant breeding. In the present study, we evaluated the natural variation of drought tolerance among nine bermudagrass varieties by measuring physiological responses after drought stress treatment through withholding water. Three groups differing in drought tolerance were identified, including two tolerant, five moderately tolerant and two susceptible varieties. Under drought stress condition, drought sensitive variety (Yukon) showed relative higher water loss, more severe cell membrane damage (EL), and more accumulation of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and malondialdehyde (MDA), while drought tolerant variety (Tifgreen) exhibited significantly higher antioxidant enzymes activities. Further results indicated that drought induced cell injury in different varieties (Yukon, SR9554 and Tifgreen) exhibited liner correlation with leaf water content (LWC), H2O2 content, MDA content and antioxidant enzyme activities. Additionally, Tifgreen plants had significantly higher levels of osmolytes (proline level and soluble sugars) when compared with Yukon and SR9554 under drought stress condition. Taken together, our results indicated that natural variation of drought stress tolerance in bermudagrass varieties might be largely related to the induced changes of water status, osmolyte accumulation and antioxidant defense system.
Highlights
Drought is one of the most serious world-wide problems and largely affects plant growth, development and survival rate, leading to enormous crop yield loss
To compare the drought tolerance of nine bermudagrass varieties, healthy plants were subjected to well-watered condition and drought condition by withholding water in the soil for 28 d
When the drought stress was applied for 28 d, the leaf water content (LWC) and survival rates of all varieties were largely decreased, while the electrolyte leakage (EL) were increased
Summary
Drought is one of the most serious world-wide problems and largely affects plant growth, development and survival rate, leading to enormous crop yield loss. More attentions have been paid to mechanisms of plant drought stress tolerance, including physiological and biochemical metabolisms, gene expression regulation, proteomic profiling and cross-talks between several hormones etc, which further helps us develop different genetic approaches to improve plant drought tolerance and prevent yield loss. In response to drought stress, turfgrass has developed complex mechanisms such as physiological, biochemical, molecular and cellular changes to cope with limited water supply [3,4]. Drought stress is a world-wide problem, and different grass species may develop different strategies to tolerate, escape, or avoid drought stress condition [4,7,8,9,10]
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