Register      Login
Functional Plant Biology Functional Plant Biology Society
Plant function and evolutionary biology
Shopping Cart: ( empty )
You are here: Home > Journals > FP > FP23170
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Contents Vol 50(12)

Leaf water relations and osmotic adjustment of Canada Western Red Spring wheat cultivars subjected to drought

Gopal Sharma A , Gurcharn S. Brar https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1429-2716 A * and Thorsten Knipfer https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1375-5651 A *
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations

A Faculty of Land and Food Systems, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada.

* Correspondence to: thorsten.knipfer@ubc.ca, gurcharn.brar@ubc.ca

Handling Editor: Wieland Fricke

Functional Plant Biology 50(12) 1037-1046 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP23170
Submitted: 15 April 2023  Accepted: 18 September 2023  Published: 10 October 2023

© 2023 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing

Abstract

For wheat (Triticum aestivum), sustained crop yield at limited soil water availability has been linked to osmotic adjustment (OA) – a physiological mechanism that aids maintenance of leaf hydration status, turgor (P) and growth. ‘Canada Western Red Spring’ (CWRS) wheat cultivars are typically grown in rainfed areas with milder climates, but ongoing climate change is increasesing the frequency and intensity of drought events. The overarching goal of this study was to elucidate if commercially used CWRS cultivars (‘Superb’, ‘Stettler’, ‘AAC Viewfield’) have the ability for leaf OA. Measurements of leaf water relation parameters (water potential, Ψ; solute potential, Ψs; stomatal conductance, gs; relative water content, RWC) showed that all three cultivars reached zero P (= Ψ – Ψs) at a leaf Ψ of −1.1 MPa. Prior to that, P maintenance in ‘Superb’ and ‘AAC Viewfield’ was associated with a significant reduction in leaf Ψs and OA contributed 0.53 MPa (‘Superb’) and 0.73 MPa (‘AAC Viewfield’). Our data analyses provided no support for the existence of OA in ‘Stettler’. Under water deficit, leaf gs was significantly higher in ‘AAC Viewfield’ compared to ‘Stettler’; it was intermediate in ‘Superb’. Together, drought tolerance in CWRS wheat cultivars is most likely linked to the degree of OA.

Keywords: concentration effects, leaf relative water content, soil water content, solute potential, stomatal conductance, Triticum aestivum, turgor, water relations.

References

Ashe P, Shaterian H, Akhov L, Kulkarni M, Selvaraj G (2017) Contrasting root and photosynthesis traits in a large-acreage Canadian durum variety and its distant parent of Algerian origin for assembling drought/heat tolerance attributes. Frontiers in Chemistry 5, 121.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Awika JM (2011) Major cereal grains production and use around the world. In ‘Advances in cereal science and health promotion. ACS Symposium Series’. (Eds J Awika, V Piironen, S Bean) pp. 1–13. (American Chemical Society: WA, USA)

Babu RC, Pathan MS, Blum A, Nguyen HT (1999) Comparison of measurement methods of osmotic adjustment in rice cultivars. Crop Science 39, 150-158.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Bagatta M, Pacifico D, Mandolino G (2008) Evaluation of the osmotic adjustment response within the genus Beta. Journal of Sugar Beet Research 45, 119-133.
| Google Scholar |

Barrs HD, Weatherley PE (1962) A re-examination of the relative turgidity technique for estimating water deficits in leaves. Australian Journal of Biological Sciences 15, 413-428.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Blum A (2017) Osmotic adjustment is a prime drought stress adaptive engine in support of plant production. Plant, Cell & Environment 40, 4-10.
| Crossref | Google Scholar | PubMed |

Blum A (2010) Drought resistance and its improvement. In ‘Plant breeding for water-limited environments’. (Ed. A Blum) pp. 53–152. (Springer: New York, NY, USA)

Blum A, Zhang J, Nguyen HT (1999) Consistent differences among wheat cultivars in osmotic adjustment and their relationship to plant production. Field Crops Research 64, 287-291.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Brown RD, Braaten RO (1998) Spatial and temporal variability of Canadian monthly snow depths, 1946–1995. Atmosphere-Ocean 36, 37-54.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Carson GR, Edwards NM (2009) Criteria of wheat and flour quality. In ‘Wheat: chemistry and technology’. 4th edn. (Eds K Khan, PR Shewry) pp. 97–118. (Woodhead Publishing and AACC International Press)

Cubasch U, Meehl GA, Boer GJ, Stouffer RJ, Dix M, Noda A, et al. (2001) Projections of future climate change. In ‘Climate change 2001: the scientific basis. Contribution of WG1 to the third Assessment Report of the IPCC (TAR)’. (Eds JT Houghton, Y Ding, DJ Griggs, M Noguer, PJ van der Lind, X Dai, K Maskell, CA Johnson) pp. 525–582. (Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK)

Cuthbert RD, DePauw RM, Knox RE, Singh AK, McCallum B, Fetch T (2018) AAC viewfield hard red spring wheat. Canadian Journal of Plant Science 99, 102-110.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

de Jong E, Steppuhn H (1983) Water conservation: the Canadian prairies. In ‘Dryland agriculture’. Publ. 23. (Eds HE Dregne, WO Willis) pp. 89–104. (American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, Soil Science Society of America: Madison, WI, USA)

DePauw RM, Knox RE, Clarke FR, Clarke JM, McCaig TN (2009) Stettler hard red spring wheat. Canadian Journal of Plant Science 89, 945-951.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Dore MHI (2005) Climate change and changes in global precipitation patterns: what do we know? Environment International 31, 1167-1181.
| Crossref | Google Scholar | PubMed |

FAO (2020) Crop prospects and food situation – quarterly global report No. 3, September 2020. Food and Agricultural Organization, Rome.

Gregory PJ (1994) Root growth and activity. In ‘Physiology and determination of crop yield’. (Eds KJ Boote, JM Bennett, TR Sinclair, GM Paulsen) pp. 65–93. (American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, Soil Science Society of America: Madison, WI, USA)

Hurd EA (1964) Root study of three wheat varieties and their resistance to drought and damage by soil cracking. Canadian Journal of Plant Science 44, 240-248.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Hurd EA (1968) Growth of roots of seven varieties of spring wheat at high and low moisture levels. Agronomy Journal 60, 201-205.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Hurd EA (1974) Phenotype and drought tolerance in wheat. Agricultural Meteorology 14, 39-55.
| Google Scholar |

Jones MM, Turner NC (1978) Osmotic adjustment in leaves of sorghum in response to water deficits. Plant Physiology 61, 122-126.
| Google Scholar |

Knipfer T, Reyes C, Momayyezi M, Brown PJ, Kluepfel D, McElrone AJ (2020) A comparative study on physiological responses to drought in walnut genotypes (RX1, Vlach, VX211) commercially available as rootstocks. Trees 34, 665-678.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Kramer PJ, Boyer JS (1995) ‘Water relations of plants and soils.’ (Academic Press)

Mahmood T, Abdullah M, Ahmar S, et al. (2020) Incredible role of osmotic adjustment in grain yield sustainability under water scarcity conditions in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.). Plants (Basel, Switzerland) 9, 1208.
| Google Scholar | PubMed |

Moinuddin , Fischer RA, Sayre KD, Reynolds MP (2005) Osmotic adjustment in wheat in relation to grain yield under water deficit environments. Agronomy Journal 97, 1062-1071.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Morgan JM (1977) Differences in osmoregulation between wheat genotypes. Nature 270, 234-235.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Morgan JM (1980) Osmotic adjustment in the spikelets and leaves of wheat. Journal of Experimental Botany 31, 655-665.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Morgan JM (1992) Osmotic components and properties associated with genotypic differences in osmoregulation in wheat. Functional Plant Biology 19(1), 67-76.
| Google Scholar |

Morgan JM, Condon AG (1986) Water use, grain yield, and osmoregulation in wheat. Functional Plant Biology 13, 523-532.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Quarrie SA, Jones HG (1979) Genotypic variation in leaf water potential, stomatal conductance and abscisic acid concentration in spring wheat subjected to artificial drought stress. Annals of Botany 44, 323-332.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Sangtarash MH (2010) Responses of different wheat genotypes to drought stress applied at different growth stages. Pakistan Journal of Biological Sciences 13(3), 114-119.
| Crossref | Google Scholar | PubMed |

Sauchyn D, Kulshreshtha S (2008) Prairies. In ‘From impacts to adaptation: Canada in a changing climate 2007’. (Eds DS Lemmen, FJ Warren, J Lacroix, E Bush) pp. 275–328. (Government of Canada: Ottawa, ON)

Shah NH, Paulsen GM (2003) Interaction of drought and high temperature on photosynthesis and grain-filling of wheat. Plant and Soil 257, 219-226.
| Google Scholar |

Siddique MRB, Hamid AIMS, Islam MS (2000) Drought stress effects on water relations of wheat. Botanical Bulletin of Academia Sinica 41, 35-39.
| Google Scholar |

Silva H, Copaja SV, Bravo HR, Argandoña VH (2006) Relationship between grain yield, osmotic adjustment and benzoxazinone content in Triticum aestivum L. cultivars. Zeitschrift für Naturforschung C 61, 704-708.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Statistics Canada (2022) Canadian Spring Wheat Varieties – December 2022. Available at https://www.statcan.gc.ca/en/statistical-programs/document/3401_D3_V4

Stone DA, Weaver AJ, Zwiers FW (2000) Trends in Canadian precipitation intensity. Atmosphere-Ocean 38, 321-347.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Tomos D (2000) The plant cell pressure probe. Biotechnology Letters 22, 437-442.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Townley-Smith TF, Humphreys DG, Czarnecki E, Lukow OM, McCallum BM, Fetch TG, Gilbert JA, Menzies JG, Brown PD (2010) Superb hard red spring wheat. Canadian Journal of Plant Science 90, 347-352.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Turner NC (1981) Techniques and experimental approaches for the measurement of plant water status. Plant and Soil 58, 339-366.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Turner NC (2017) Turgor maintenance by osmotic adjustment, an adaptive mechanism for coping with plant water deficits. Plant, Cell & Environment 40, 1-3.
| Crossref | Google Scholar | PubMed |

Turner NC, Jones MM (1980) Turgor maintenance by osmotic adjustment: a review and evaluation. In ‘Adaptation of plants to water and high temperature stress’. (Eds NC Turner, PJ Kramer) pp. 87–103. (Wiley)

Wang SG, Jia SS, Sun DZ, Wang HY, Dong FF, Ma HX, Jing RL, Ma G (2015) Genetic basis of traits related to stomatal conductance in wheat cultivars in response to drought stress. Photosynthetica 53, 299-305.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Weatherley PE (1950) Studies in the water relations of the cotton plant. I. The field measurement of water deficits in leaves. New Phytologist 49, 81-97.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |

Willick IR, Lahlali R, Vijayan P, Muir D, Karunakaran C, Tanino KK (2018) Wheat flag leaf epicuticular wax morphology and composition in response to moderate drought stress are revealed by SEM, FTIR-ATR and synchrotron X-ray spectroscopy. Physiologia Plantarum 162, 316-332.
| Crossref | Google Scholar | PubMed |

Zadoks JC, Chang TT, Konzak CF (1974) A decimal code for the growth stages of cereals. Weed Research 14, 415-421.
| Crossref | Google Scholar |