Morphological, Physiological and biochemical responses to soil water deficit in seedlings of three populations of wild pear tree (Pyrus boisseriana)

• Autores: Zarafshar, Mehrdad; Akbarinia, Moslem; Askari, Hossein; Hosseini, Seyed Mohsen; Rahaie, Mehdi; Struve, Daniel; Striker, Gustavo Gabriel
• Año de publicación: 2014
• Idioma: inglés
• Tipo de recurso: artículo
• Fuente: Biotechnology, Agronomy and Society and Environment; Vol.18, no.3; 353-366; http://www.pressesagro.be/base/index.php/base/index
• Materia: DROUGHT STRESS; DROUGHT TOLERANCE; GERMPLASM; PYRUS; PYRUS PYRASTER; WILD PLANTS
• Institución: Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía

Fil: Zarafshar, Mehrdad. Tarbiat Modares University. Faculty of Natural Resources and Marine Sciences. Department of Forestry. Imam Reza St. Nour. Mazandaran Province, Iran.
Fil: Akbarinia, Moslem. Tarbiat Modares University. Faculty of Natural Resources and Marine Sciences. Department of Forestry. Imam Reza St. Nour. Mazandaran Province, Iran.
Fil: Askari, Hossein. Shahid Beheshti University, G.C. Faculty of New Technologies and Energy Engineering. Biotechnology Department. Tehran, Iran.
Fil: Hosseini, Seyed Mohsen. Tarbiat Modares University. Faculty of Natural Resources and Marine Sciences. Department of Forestry. Imam Reza St. Nour. Mazandaran Province, Iran.
Fil: Rahaie, Mehdi. University of Tehran. Faculty of New Science and Technology. Department of Life Science Engineering. Tehran, Iran.
Fil: Struve, Daniel. Ohio State University. Department of Horticulture and Crop Science. Columbus, Ohio, USA.
Fil: Striker, Gustavo Gabriel. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Agronomía. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura (IFEVA). Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Fil: Striker, Gustavo Gabriel. CONICET – Universidad de Buenos Aires. Instituto de Investigaciones Fisiológicas y Ecológicas Vinculadas a la Agricultura (IFEVA). Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Water shortage limits the production of fruit orchards, such as pear, in arid and semi-arid regions. The identification of wild pear germplasm for potential use as rootstock would be valuable for pear cultivation in semi-arid regions. The relative drought tolerance of wild pear germplasm (Pyrus boisseriana) from three different populations distributed along an elevational gradient ('semi-arid 1, 000', 'semi-wet 1, 350' and 'semi-wet 1, 600' populations) was evaluated in a greenhouse trial. Established container-grown seedlings were exposed to 18 days of simulated drought, or not, followed by a seven day recovery period. Biomass allocation and accumulation, physiological (stomatal conductance, photosynthesis, transpiration, xylem water potential) and biochemical parameters (leaf pigments, free proline, malondialdehyde and hydrogen peroxide production) were evaluated. Although all populations were able to recover from water shortage, thereby proving to be relatively drought tolerant, some differences between populations were detected for gas exchange parameters, biomass accumulation and proline concentration in favor of the 'semi-arid 1, 000' elevation population, which was more drought tolerant. This population showed the most rapid and complete recovery of physiological activity (stomatal conductance and carbon fixation). In addition, all populations showed an increase in carotenoid content in the leaves. Overall, we showed that plants from the 'semi-arid 1, 000' elevation had greater tolerance to drought than those from the higher elevations (semi-wet populations). It therefore appears that plants from the 'semi-arid 1, 000' elevation represent a promising source of material to be tested as rootstock for commercial scions of pear in field conditions in areas prone to suffer from water deficit.