The drought response of potato reference cultivars with contrasting tolerance

Abstract

Systems responses to drought stress of four potato reference cultivars with differential drought tolerance (Solanum tuberosum L.) were investigated by metabolome profiling and RNA sequencing. Systems analysis was based on independent field and greenhouse trials. Robust differential drought responses across all cultivars under both conditions comprised changes of proline, raffinose, galactinol, arabitol, arabinonic acid, chlorogenic acid and 102 transcript levels. The encoded genes contained a high proportion of heat shock proteins and proteins with signalling or regulatory functions, for example, a homolog of abscisic acid receptor PYL4. Constitutive differences of the tolerant compared with the sensitive cultivars included arbutin, octopamine, ribitol and 248 transcripts. The gene products of many of these transcripts were pathogen response related, such as receptor kinases, or regulatory proteins, for example, a homolog of the Arabidopsis FOUR LIPS MYB-regulator of stomatal cell proliferation. Functional enrichment analyses imply heat stress as a major acclimation component of potato leaves to long-term drought stress. Enhanced heat stress during drought can be caused by loss of transpiration cooling. This effect and CO limitation are the main consequences of drought-induced or abscisic acid-induced stomatal closure. Constitutive differences in metabolite and transcript levels between tolerant and sensitive cultivars indicate interactions of drought tolerance and pathogen resistance in potato.

Regulation of Sucrose Transporters and Phloem Loading in Response to Environmental Cues

“…While in Arabidopsis and soybean the phloem-loading SUTs are up-regulated, they do not show any significant change in the Solanaceae potato and tomato. Although the potato and tomato varieties used here, like most commercially grown cultivars, are drought-sensitive (Pmk and Ledent, 2001;Sprenger et al, 2016), Suc content in phloem exudate is only moderately reduced, making this observation even more puzzling. In these species, only expression of SUT4 changed significantly in response to the different (Fig.…”

Divergent strategies displayed by potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) cultivars to cope with soil drought

“…The potato ( Solanum tuberosum L.), the fourth most important food crop in the world (FAO, ; Ramirez et al., ), is sensitive to periodic water shortage and soil drought throughout the growth and development, but the most critical growth phase is tuber initiation (Monneveux, Ramirez, & Pino, ; Sprenger et al., ). Thus, the occurrence of soil water deficits in dry areas and temperate climates results in a reduction of tuber yield and quality (Obidiegwu et al., ).…”

“…In Poland, an increase in the frequency of soil drought has been observed recently (http://www.climateadaptation.eu/poland/agriculture‐ and‐horticulture/) that resulted in severe loss of tuber yield by 7%–45%. The modern potato cultivars are highly sensitive to soil drought (Sprenger et al., ) although variability in response to soil drought is observed (Monneveux et al., ; Sołtys‐Kalina, Plich, Strzelczyk‐Żyta, Śliwka, & Marczewski, ; Sprenger et al., ). The relatively limited progress made in improving the potato drought resistance seems to be caused by a poor knowledge of the mechanisms responsible for drought resistance in the potato and in consequence, lack of effective methods for selection (Monneveux et al., ; Sprenger et al., ).…”

“…The modern potato cultivars are highly sensitive to soil drought (Sprenger et al., ) although variability in response to soil drought is observed (Monneveux et al., ; Sołtys‐Kalina, Plich, Strzelczyk‐Żyta, Śliwka, & Marczewski, ; Sprenger et al., ). The relatively limited progress made in improving the potato drought resistance seems to be caused by a poor knowledge of the mechanisms responsible for drought resistance in the potato and in consequence, lack of effective methods for selection (Monneveux et al., ; Sprenger et al., ). Therefore, the main aim of our study was to reveal those physiological mechanisms that are related to potato drought tolerance in terms of yield stability.…”

Mutation in HvCBP20 (Cap Binding Protein 20) Adapts Barley to Drought Stress at Phenotypic and Transcriptomic Levels

“…The recent progress in plant functional genomics has significantly accelerated the process of decoding the ABA-dependent drought stress response in different species (Baek et al, 2010; Park et al, 2015; Sprenger et al, 2016; Zhao et al, 2016). However, further research is still needed to achieve a full understanding of the ABA-dependent drought-response mechanisms and to implement them for the production of crops with an improved drought tolerance.…”