Abstract
The water-use efficiency (WUE) has been proposed as an alternative to mitigate the effects of climate change in agriculture and to reduce pressure on water resources, mainly in species with high water requirements which are grown under rainfed conditions. The aim of this study was to characterize the instantaneous, integral and molecular WUE of four bean cultivars contrasting in their response under limiting water conditions to compare the component mechanisms of this trait between drought tolerant and susceptible cultivars. Results indicated that tolerant cultivars increased their instantaneous WUE in comparison to susceptible ones; however, there was a difference between cultivars since Pinto Villa had a higher stomatal conductance and transpiration rate, leading to a higher water cost to produce seed than Pinto Saltillo. Furthermore, ycf2, rrn16, rpoC2, hardy, ndhK, erecta and ycf1 WUE genes were only overexpressed in Pinto Saltillo under limited water conditions, which turned out to be the most WUE efficient cultivar. Therefore, the component mechanisms of WUE are different even between drought tolerant cultivars and the mechanisms by which the tolerant cultivars increased their instantaneous and integral WUE were different.
Highlights
World population will increase around 9 billion by 2050 and its water requirements will be of 12,400 km3 instead of the 6,800 km3 (Godfray et al, 2010)
Total RNA was extracted from leaf tissue representative of growth stage using the procedure of Logemann, Schell, and Willmitzer (1987) and RNA purity was determined by spectrophotometry, subsequently RNA integrity was tested by denaturing electrophoresis in 1.5% agarose with 12.3 M formaldehyde and 10X MOPS
water-use efficiency (WUE) related genes were amplified in PCR reactions with 300 ng μL-1 of cDNA as template and with corresponding number cycles according with the normalization of the 26S gene
Summary
World population will increase around 9 billion by 2050 and its water requirements will be of 12,400 km instead of the 6,800 km (Godfray et al, 2010). Even after improving irrigation efficiency in agriculture, water resources management and modernized rainfed production, 3,300 km of water will still be required (Molden et al, 2010), whereby the water demand will increase to satisfy the needs of urban and industrial use, generating competition within and among sectors, reducing the availability of water for agricultural production (Hanjra & Qureshi, 2010). Climate change is inflicting a high impact on agriculture by altering the spatial and temporal distribution of rainfall, which limits water availability (Crimmins, Dobrowski, Greenberg, Abatzoglou, & Mynsberge, 2011).
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