Water Stress Mediated Changes in Morphology and Physiology of Gossypium arboreum (Var FDH-786)

Abstract

Abiotic stresses exert a substantial influence on growth and yield in plants; water stress is one of the most imperative abiotic stress factors. The study was carried out to elucidate the effect of drought stress on growth and physiology in Gossypium arboreum. Plants were grown in plastic bags and drought level (5% and 15% drought and control respectively) were maintained. The experiment was laid out in complete randomized design (CRD) with three replicates each control and drought stress. Forty five days old seedlings were imposed water stress for 10 days. Data of various morphological characters (plant height, root length, shoot length, fresh and dry biomass and root shoot ratio), physiological attributes (relative water contents and cell membrane thermostability) was recorded. The morphological and physiological attributes revealed significant differences among control and drought stress plants. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) for morphological characters revealed that plant height, root length, dry shoot weight, dry root weight, and root shoot ratio were found to be significant while fresh shoot weight and fresh root weight was found to be non significant. For physiological attributes both relative water contents and cell membrane thermostability were calculated as significant factors. The present study suggest that cotton variety FDH-786 execute well in drought tolerance as the plant biomass and root shoot ratio is the major selection parameters in the breeding for drought tolerance program. Nevertheless physiological attributes cell membrane thermostability and relative water contents are also the prognostic markers in the selection of crop plants against abiotic stresses.