A procedure for maize genotypes discrimination to drought by chlorophyll fluorescence imaging rapid light curves

Abstract

BackgroundPhotosynthesis can be roughly separated into biochemical and photochemical processes. Both are affected by drought and can be assessed by non-invasive standard methods. Gas exchange, which mainly assesses the first process, has well-defined protocols. It is considered a standard method for evaluation of plant responses to drought. Under such stress, assessment of photochemical apparatus by chlorophyll fluorescence needs improvement to become faster and reproducible, especially in growing plants under field conditions. For this, we developed a protocol based on chlorophyll fluorescence imaging, using a rapid light curve approach.ResultsAlmost all parameters obtained by rapid light curves have shown statistical differences between control and drought stressed maize plants. However, most of them were affected by induction processes, relaxation rate, and/or differences in chlorophyll content; while they all were influenced by actinic light intensity on each light step of light curve. Only the normalized parameters related to photochemical and non-photochemical quenching were strongly correlated with data obtained by gas exchange, but only from the light step in which the linear electron flow reached saturation.ConclusionsThe procedure developed in this study for discrimination of plant responses to water deficit stress proved to be as fast, efficient and reliable as the standard technique of gas exchange in order to discriminate the responses of maize genotypes to drought. However, unlike that, there is no need to perform daily and time consuming calibration routines. Moreover, plant acclimation to the dark is not required. The protocol can be applied to plants growing in both controlled conditions and full sunlight in the field. In addition, it generates parameters in a fast and accurate measurement process, which enables evaluating several plants in a short period of time.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13007-017-0209-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Impact of Fusarium verticillioides on chlorophyll fluorescence parameters of two maize lines

“…Previously several studies have shown that Fusarium species is having the capacity to damage the PSII in different plants (Santini et al 2008;Bauriegel et al 2011). In the last decade, the prompt chlorophyll fluorescence measurement has established itself as a quick method to estimate the plant stress responses (de Sousa et al 2017;Kalaji et al 2018). OJIP transient curves have been developed as a signature for plant stress, and any deviation from its usual shape indicates some abnormalities of the photosystem.…”

“…Chlorophyll a fluorescence kinetics studies using portable devices known as fluorometers or Plant Stress Meters (PSM) is one of the finest methods to investigate the function of PSII and its reactions to changes in the environment and plant growth conditions (Kalaji et al 2011). In recent years, changes in ChlF patterns in response to several stress factors has been reported, such as, drought (Berger et al 2010;Živčák et al 2014;de Sousa et al 2017), low or high light (Bartak et al 2004;Kalaji et al 2012;Hazrati et al 2016), salinity (Zhang et al 2010;Kalaji et al 2011), temperature (Kalaji et al 2011;Brestič et al 2012;Botta 2013;Huang et al 2017) and herbicides (Balabanova et al 2016). Nevertheless, photosynthetic performances of different maize lines by exploiting multi-parametric fluorescence devices under inoculation with F. verticillioides have not yet been explored at all.…”

Response of Photosynthetic Performance to Drought Duration and Re-Watering in Maize

“…However, it also restricts CO 2 entry in the leaf, which may lead to the decrease of the photosynthesis rate [9] and a decrease in primary photochemical processes [10], which will inhibit plant growth and even reduce dry matter accumulation and yield [11]. Therefore, the measurement of photosynthetic performance is considered a standard technique for studies on drought stress, especially, the photosynthesis rate (A), stomata conductance (gs), and transpiration (E) have been determined to be the most used techniques to discriminate the plant responses to drought [12][13][14]. The measurement of chlorophyll fluorescence is another standard technique for drought studies.…”

“…The effects of drought on maize have been extensively investigated. In general, drought was shown to induce the decrease of photosynthesis in maize leaves, and this decrease was caused by stomatal closure and the decrease of the maximum quantum efficiency of photosystem II [11,14,22,23]. Drought might also lead to a reduction in total biomass and fraction of crop dry matter allocated to the grain [24].…”

Hydraulic and photosynthetic responses of big sagebrush to the 2017 total solar eclipse

“…Additionally, temperature and humidity conditions can produce substantial errors of gas exchange rates altering stomatal responses and VPD at the leaf-level 44,57 . Repeated saturating pulses under dynamic actinic light on the same leaf was considered to have negligible effects on fluorescence measurements as duration between pulses was longer (i.e., every 30 seconds) than rapid light fluorescence curves measurements (e.g., 0.8–10 seconds) 58,59 . Nevertheless, Ψ L and time point fluorescence measurements were taken under direct influence of the spectral variations of the eclipse and were not significantly different from chamber observations (Fig.…”