Abstract
Water is the most widely limiting factor for plants distribution, survival and agricultural productivity, their responses to drought and recovery being critical for their success and productivity. Olea europaea L. is a well-adapted species to cyclic drought events, still at considerable expense of carbon reserves and CO2 supply. To study the role of abscisic acid (ABA) as a promoter of drought adaptability, young potted olive trees subjected to three drought-recovery cycles were pre-treated with ABA. The results demonstrated that ABA pre-treatment allowed the delay of the drought effects on stomatal conductance (gs) and net photosynthesis (An), and under severe drought, permitted the reduction of the non-stomatal limitations to An and the relative water content decline, the accumulation of compatible solutes and avoid the decline of photosynthetic pigments, soluble proteins and total thiols concentrations and the accumulation of ROS. Upon rewatering, ABA-sprayed plants showed an early recovery of An. The plant ionome was also changed by the addition of ABA, with special influence on root K, N and B concentrations. The improved physiological and biochemical functions of the ABA-treated plants attenuated the drought-induced decline in biomass accumulation and potentiated root growth and whole-plant water use efficiency after successive drought-rewatering cycles. These changes are likely to be of real adaptive significance, with important implications for olive tree growth and productivity.
Highlights
On global basis, water is the most widely limiting factor for plants distribution, survival and agricultural productivity
Water deficit occurs when there is not enough water to absorb in order to replace the losses by transpiration, or when plants encounter environmental conditions that hinder the absorption process [1]
The responses and adaptation of species to drought are critical for their success in any environmental niche and for their use and productivity in agricultural ecosystems [2]
Summary
Water is the most widely limiting factor for plants distribution, survival and agricultural productivity. Water deficit occurs when there is not enough water to absorb in order to replace the losses by transpiration, or when plants encounter environmental conditions that hinder the absorption process [1]. The responses and adaptation of species to drought are critical for their success in any environmental niche and for their use and productivity in agricultural ecosystems [2]. The capacity to recover the plant functions when water shortage is relieved is crucial to restart growth under cyclic drought events. Recovery after stress is a very complex process involving the rearrangement of many metabolic pathways to repair drought-induced damages and resume plant growth and gain yield [3]. That is why Chen et al [3] draw attention to the concept of “drought adaptability”, which integrates drought resistance and recovery capacity
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