Temporal Response to Drought Stress in Several Prunus Rootstocks and Wild Species

Abstract

Prunus species are important crops in temperate regions. In these regions, drought periods are predicted to occur more frequently due to climate change. In this sense, to reduce the impact of climate warming, obtaining new tolerant/resistant cultivars and rootstocks is a mandatory goal in Prunus breeding. Therefore, the current study assembled three Prunus species including almond, (P. dulcis Mill D.A. Webb), apricot (P. armeniaca L.) and peach (P. persica L.) to model the temporal effects of drought. A hybrid peach × almond and a wild almond-relative species Prunus webbii were also included in the study. Physiological traits associated with photosynthetic activity, leaf water status, and chlorophyll content were assessed under three watering treatments. Results showed that effects of time, genotype, and treatment interact significantly in all traits. In addition, results confirmed that P. webbii have a greater tolerance to drought than commercial rootstocks. However, “Real Fino” apricot showed the fastest recovery after re-irrigation while being one of the most affected cultivars. In addition, from the better response to these watering treatments by the almond genotypes, two different trends were observed after re-irrigation treatment that clearly differentiate the response of the almond cultivar “Garrigue” from the rest of Prunus genotypes. A better characterization of the short-term drought response in Prunus, an accurate and more efficient evaluation of the genotype effect was obtained from the use of mixed models considering appropriate variance–covariance structures. Although the advantages of these approaches are rarely used in Prunus breeding, these methodologies should be undertaken in the future by breeders to increase efficiency in developing new breeding materials.

Drought-Adaptive Mechanisms of Young Sweet Cherry Trees in Response to Withholding and Resuming Irrigation Cycles

“…It also caused premature defoliation (Figure 10) as a further step in water conservation to that promoted by epinasty. In SS trees, defoliation was an important adaptive mechanism for drought tolerance (Table 3), as it clearly reduced the leaf area of the trees and thus the area exposed to solar radiation [53]. In SS trees, the decrease in Ψ turgor at the end of the second drought cycle coincided with the moment in which they shed the highest number of leaves, while in MS trees, there was a low amount of leaf fall, which was more similar to CTL trees (Figures 5 and 10).…”

Orchard Management and Incorporation of Biochemical and Molecular Strategies for Improving Drought Tolerance in Fruit Tree Crops

“…Wild relatives of fruit tree species are candidates for breeding future crops and have attracted the attention of scientists researching drought [ 11 ]. Many native wild tree species have been found to perform better under drought conditions than cultivated species [ 24 ]. In these species, a lower vulnerability to xylem embolism leads to a more robust seasonal pattern of photosynthesis [ 11 ].…”

Photosynthetic Variability of Oblačinska Sour Cherry Ecotypes under Drought

“…Drought is a meteorological term for a period without significant rainfall. Tolerance to stress caused by drought is present in almost all plants, but the level of tolerance varies among species and even among cultivars of the same species [1][2][3]. Depending on the intensity and duration of stressful conditions, plant species react differently at different organizational levels and developmental stages [4].…”