Interspecific Differences in Physiological and Biochemical Traits Drive the Water Stress Tolerance in Young Morus alba L. and Conocarpus erectus L. Saplings

Abstract

Mitigating climate change requires the identification of tree species that can tolerate water stress with fewer negative impacts on plant productivity. Therefore, the study aimed to evaluate the water stress tolerance of young saplings of C. erectus and M. alba under three soil water deficit treatments (control, CK, 90% field capacity, FC, medium stress MS, 60% FC and high stress, HS, 30% FC) under controlled conditions. Results showed that leaf and stem dry weight decreased significantly in both species under MS and HS. However, root dry weight and root/shoot ratio increased, and total dry weight remained similar to CK under MS in C. erectus saplings. Stomatal conductance, CO2 assimilation rate decreased, and intrinsic water use efficiency increased significantly in both species under MS and HS treatments. The concentration of hydrogen peroxide, superoxide radical, malondialdehyde and electrolyte leakage increased in both the species under soil water deficit but was highest in M. alba. The concentration of antioxidative enzymes like superoxide dismutase, peroxidase, catalase, and ascorbate peroxidase also increased in both species under MS and HS but was highest in C. erectus. Therefore, results suggest that C. erectus saplings depicted a better tolerance to MS due to an effective antioxidative enzyme system.

Exogenous zinc application mitigates negative effects of salinity on barley (Hordeum vulgare) growth by improving root ionic homeostasis

“…This may play a dual-beneficial role. Higher AO activity may provide greater protection to the cell structures against the ROS generated by stress (Zafar et al 2021). Another possibility is that Zn addition activates the antioxidant activity of CAT at the transcript level, as found in Arabidopsis thaliana (Khan et al 2019).…”

Intrinsic morphology and spatial distribution of non‐structural carbohydrates contribute to drought resistance of two mulberry cultivars

“…Interspecific differences in drought resistance have been documented in many plants (Ma et al 2016;Carlos Suarez et al 2021), among which morphophysiological mechanisms play crucial roles in adaptation to adverse environmental cues (Zafar et al 2021). For instance, drought resistance was significantly and negatively correlated with relative water content and g s among different barley (Hordeum vulgare) genotypes (Hasanuzzaman et al 2019).…”

Screening and Verification of Photosynthesis and Chloroplast-Related Genes in Mulberry by Comparative RNA-Seq and Virus-Induced Gene Silencing

“…Mulberry leaves and mulberry have been listed by the Ministry of Health as “one of the agricultural products that are both food and medicine”. On the other hand, mulberry is highly exposed to stress tolerances, such as drought [ 1 ], salinity [ 2 ], heavy metal stress [ 3 , 4 ], waterlogging [ 5 , 6 ], and resistance to B. cinerea [ 7 ]. As a result, many studies have been conducted to investigate the mechanism of mulberry response to abiotic and biotic stress using the transcriptome and proteome [ 2 , 8 ].…”