No abstract

Abiotic stresses as salinity, and boron toxicity, and deficiency are commonly found in arid and semi-arid areas were broccoli is abundantly grown. In this work, the physiological response of broccoli leaves (including growth, relative water content, stomatal conductance, and mineral concentration) was studied under salinity and boron stresses (deficiency and toxicity), individually or in combination. Also, the molecular study of PIP aquaporins were studied in relation to their presence in plasma membrane PIP presence and their membrane lipid environment. The results showed that only the combination of salinity and boron deficiency decreased plant biomass, suggesting good adaptation to the other treatments. Changes in stomatal conductance and mineral nutrients suggest that the adaptation was related to water and boron transport through leaves, involving aquaporins since avoidance strategy was observed. Furthermore, changes in aquaporins PIP expression revealed that each individual aquaporin is involved in each treatment, either alone or in combination. However, the discrepancy between the presence of aquaporins in the plasma membrane and microsomal fraction pointed towards the regulation of trafficking and membrane composition (lipids and proteins) should be highly present in this plant under stress.