Abstract
Drought and salinity are among the major abiotic stresses which, often inter-relatedly, adversely affect plant growth and productivity. Plant stress responses depend on the type of stress, on its intensity, on the species, and also on the genotype. Different accessions of a species may have evolved different mechanisms to cope with stress and to complete their life cycles. This study is focused on lentil, an important Mediterranean legume with high quality protein for the human diet. The effects of salinity and drought on germination and early growth of Castelluccio di Norcia (CAST), Pantelleria (PAN), Ustica (UST), and Eston (EST) accessions were evaluated to identify metabolic and phenotypic traits related to drought and/or salinity stress tolerance. The results showed a relationship between imposed stresses and performance of the cultivars. According to germination frequencies, the accession ranking was as follows: NaCl resistant > susceptible, PAN > UST > CAST > EST; polyethylene glycol (PEG) resistant > susceptible, CAST > UST > EST > PAN. Seedling tolerance rankings were: NaCl resistant > susceptible, CAST ≈ UST > PAN ≈ EST; PEG resistant > susceptible, CAST > EST ≈ UST > PAN. Changes in the metabolite profiles, mainly quantitative rather than qualitative, were observed in the same cultivar in respect to the treatments, and among the cultivars under the same treatment. Metabolic differences in the stress tolerance of the different genotypes were related to a reduction in the levels of tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle intermediates. The relevant differences, between the most NaCl-tolerant genotype (PAN) and the most sensitive one (EST) were related to the decrease in the threonic acid level. Stress-specific metabolite indicators were also identified: ornithine and asparagine as markers of drought stress and alanine and homoserine as markers of salinity stress.
Highlights
Survival of plants under adverse environmental conditions relies on integration of stress adaptive metabolic and structural changes into endogenous developmental programmes
The present study addresses components of drought and salinity stress adaptation of four lentil accessions, indicating metabolic adjustments related to the differences in stress tolerance
PAN and UST germinated better in NaCl (98% and 86%) than in polyethylene glycol (PEG) (56% and 57%), EST germinated less in the presence of both stresses (70% in NaCl and 56% in PEG), and, Castelluccio di Norcia (CAST) germination was high under both stresses (96% in PEG and 82% in NaCl)
Summary
Survival of plants under adverse environmental conditions relies on integration of stress adaptive metabolic and structural changes into endogenous developmental programmes. Abiotic environmental factors such as drought and salinity are significant plant stressors with a major impact on plant development and productivity, causing serious agricultural yield losses (Muscolo et al, 2011; Flowers and Muscolo, 2015). Plant stress responses are dynamic and involve complex cross-talk between different regulatory levels, including adjustment of metabolism for physiological and morphological adaptation (Saito and Matsuda, 2010). Comparison of the metabolic profiles of lentil accessions with different tolerance to salinity and drought stresses (Muscolo et al, 2007, 2014; Sidari et al, 2008) may show overlap, and specificity, in metabolic adjustments under different conditions
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