Relationship between leaf rolling and some physiological parameters in durum wheat under water stress

Abstract

Durum wheat is an important staple food in Morocco. Wheat and barley are mostly grown in drought prone areas in this country. Drought is the most limiting factor under Mediterranean climate. Leaf rolling ability has been identified as a potential selection criterion for drought tolerance in cereals. The objective of this study is to test this hypothesis. The role of leaf rolling in water stress tolerance was assessed in eleven Moroccan wheat cultivars. Trials were conducted under greenhouse conditions and three watering regimes simulating different drought levels were applied. Leaf rolling, leaf area, leaf specific weight and relative water content were recorded. The results indicated that the studied cultivars have shown significant differences in their leaf rolling (LR) under water deficit. The varieties 2777 and Irden showed the highest LR scored under these constraints. The variety Marjana showed the lowest LR score and expressed no LR ability under non limited irrigation treatment. Strong correlation have been observed between LR and relative water content (RWC) (r=0.923), and negative correlation was observed between LR and leaf area (LA, r=-0.783). Cultivars with high LR scores showed their capacity to control the negative impacts of water stress by keeping their physiological traits to adequate levels in order to maintain the main physiological activities of the plants. This result showed the important role of LR in water stress tolerance in the studied durum wheat cultivars.

Studies on the nature of relationships between grain yield and yield-related traits in durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) populations

“…Indeed, it is very interesting that the indirect selection method rapidly and efficiently identifies the best genotypes after the screening a sufficiently large number of segregating lines (Fellahi et al, 2018;2020). Applying the morphological and/or physiological traits as selection criteria is an interesting approach that attracts the attention of breeders and physiologists (Bennett et al, 2011;Mühleisen et al, 2013;Ben-Amar et al, 2020). Limitation of indirect selection lies by the fact that the relationship between these morpho-physiological characteristics and yield is sometimes weak, complex and depends on the genetic background and the environment (Oulmi et al, 2014;Haddad et al, 2016).…”

Evaluating Anatomical Characteristics Associated With Leaf Rolling in Northeastern Thai Rice Cultivars During Drought by Decision Tree

“…The seedlings were divided into two groups: 1) a control group (Yoshida nutrient solution group) and 2) a drought-stress group (Yoshida nutrient solution supplemented with 20% polyethylene glycol (PEG)6000). Samples were then collected from the third leaf (from the first) with a whole leaf plate to determine and score the leaf rolling index; the degree of leaf rolling was divided into values of 1-7 according to the methods of Amal et al (2020).…”