Differential Response of Two Tomato Genotypes, Wild Type cv. Ailsa Craig and Its ABA-Deficient Mutant flacca to Short-Termed Drought Cycles.

Bojana Živanović,Nenad Nikolić,Sonja Milić Komić,Tatjana Srećković,Ljiljana Prokić,Sonja Veljović Jovanović,Dragosav Mutavdžić

doi:10.3390/plants10112308

Abstract

Two tomato genotypes with constitutively different ABA level, flacca mutant and wild type of Ailsa Craig cv. (WT), were subjected to three repeated drought cycles, with the aim to reveal the role of the abscisic acid (ABA) threshold in developing drought tolerance. Differential responses to drought of two genotypes were obtained: more pronounced stomatal closure, ABA biosynthesis and proline accumulation in WT compared to the mutant were compensated by dry weight accumulation accompanied by transient redox disbalance in flacca. Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectra analysis of isolated cell wall material and morphological parameter measurements on tomato leaves indicated changes in dry weight accumulation and carbon re-allocation to cell wall constituents in flacca, but not in WT. A higher proportion of cellulose, pectin and lignin in isolated cell walls from flacca leaves further increased with repeated drought cycles. Different ABA-dependent stomatal closure between drought cycles implies that acquisition of stomatal sensitivity may be a part of stress memory mechanism developed under given conditions. The regulatory role of ABA in the cell wall restructuring and growth regulation under low leaf potential was discussed with emphasis on the beneficial effects of drought priming in developing differential defense strategies against drought.

Highlights

Water scarcity has become one of the greatest problems for agricultural production, with rapidly increasing instances in many areas of the world
Differential responses to drought of two genotypes were obtained: more pronounced stomatal closure, abscisic acid (ABA) biosynthesis and proline accumulation in Wild type (WT) compared to the mutant were compensated by dry weight accumulation accompanied by transient redox disbalance in flacca
We demonstrated that analyzed tomato genotypes developed different drought tolerant strategies depending on their constitutive ABA levels

Summary

Introduction

Water scarcity has become one of the greatest problems for agricultural production, with rapidly increasing instances in many areas of the world. Drought is identified as a major threat to crop production causing billions in annual economic losses, mainly from the agricultural sector [1,2]. Plant cell wall composition and integrity plays an important role in abiotic stress tolerance and is one of the important traits in the selection of drought tolerant varieties [15,16].The drought and salt-induced perturbation of the cell wall, which modifies its components’ synthesis, are well documented [17,18,19]

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Discussion

Conclusion