Domestication influences morphological and physiological responses to salinity in Brassica oleracea seedlings

Abstract

Brassica oleracea cultivars include important vegetable and forage crops grown worldwide, whereas the wild counterpart occurs naturally on European sea cliffs. Domestication and selection processes have led to phenotypic and genetic divergence between domesticated plants and their wild ancestors that inhabit coastal areas and are exposed to saline conditions. Salinity is one of the most limiting factors for crop production. However, little is known about how salinity affects plants in relation to domestication of B. oleracea. The objective of this study was to determine the influence of domestication status (wild, landrace or cultivar) on the response of different B. oleracea crops to salinity, as measured by seed germination, plant growth, water content and mineral concentration parameters at the seedling stage. For this purpose, two independent pot experiments were conducted with six accessions of B. oleracea, including cabbage (group capitata) and kale (group acephala), in a growth chamber under controlled environmental conditions. In both taxonomic groups, differences in domestication status and salt stress significantly affected all major process such as germination, changes in dry matter, water relations and mineral uptake. In the acephala experiment, the domestication × salinity interaction significantly affected water content parameters and shoot Na+ allocation. At early stages of development, wild plants are more succulent than cultivated plants and have a higher capacity to maintain lower Na+ concentrations in their shoots in response to increasing levels of salinity. Different responses of domesticated and cultivated accessions in relation to these traits indicated a high level of natural variation in wild B. oleracea. Exclusion of Na+ from shoots and increasing succulence may enhance salt tolerance in B. oleracea exposed to extreme salinity in the long term. The wild germplasm can potentially be used to improve the salt tolerance of crops by the identification of useful genes and incorporation of these into salinity-sensitive cultivars.

Cultivation of chicory under nutrient solutions prepared in brackish waters and applied at different temperatures

“…Leaf succulence -LS was maximum (2.63 g H 2 O dm -2 ) at ECns estimated of 4.65 dS m -1 and was not influenced (p>0.05) by Tns (Figure 4B). According to Lema et al (2019), it can be assumed that there was a tolerance limit to species' salinity at this point of ECns, in which LS was maximum. Until this point, the accumulation of sodium ions promotes an increase in mesophyll cells and leaf succulence, which enables additional water storage and mitigating losses (Xi et al, 2018).…”

A Molecular Phylogenetic Study of the Genus Phedimus for Tracing the Origin of “Tottori Fujita” Cultivars

“…In natural conditions, when an interspecific hybridization has been occurred, it may be used to recognize a new species and give a caution to carefully define the boundary of species [14]. Therefore, researchers have investigated hybridization in wild species and cultivars by morphological, physiological, and genetic approaches [15][16][17].…”

Melatonin-induced physiology and transcriptome changes in banana seedlings under salt stress conditions

“…Plants exposed to salt stress will reduce the yield of most crops, which has become a threat to human civilization, especially in areas with dense planting and population in the world as it is more affected by salinization. About 800 million hectares of land are affected by salinization according to the FAO (2017) , resulting in the loss of 0.25–0.50 million hectares of farmland every year ( Lema et al, 2019 ).…”