Drought Stress in Horticultural Plants

A special issue of Horticulturae (ISSN 2311-7524). This special issue belongs to the section "Biotic and Abiotic Stress".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2022) | Viewed by 61192

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Guest Editor
Department of Agriculture, Food and Environment, University of Catania, Via Valdisavoia, 5-95123 Catania, Italy
Interests: ornamental plants; abiotic stresses; antioxidant enzymes; biodiversity; product quality; germination; light response
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Department of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, University of Milan, via Celoria 2, 20133 Milano, Italy
Interests: plant physiology; abiotic stresses; fruit quality; postharvest physiology; vegetable production; biostimulant; sustainable agriculture

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Guest Editor
Department of Horticultural and Woody Crops, Instituto Tecnológico Agrario de Castilla y León (ITACYL), Crta Burgos Km 119, CP 47071 Valladolid, Spain
Interests: deficit irrigation; plant physiology; ornamental plants; stress physiology; evapotranspiration; salinity; water relations; tree nut crops; intrinsic water use efficiency
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Drought stress is one of the main factors limiting horticultural crops, especially in environments like the Mediterranean basin, which is often characterized by sub-optimal water availability. The global change will determine the increase of semi-arid conditions, so all horticultural crops will have to cope with the water scarcity. Appropriate plant selection and new cultivation methods, especially methods of deficit irrigation, are crucial in improving the crop cultivation performances.

Horticultural plants can have specific adaptive mechanisms to overcome the negative effects of drought stress. Drought-tolerant plants show different adjustment mechanisms to overcome this stress, including morphological, physiological, and biochemical modifications. The plant responses include increasing the root/shoot ratio, growth reduction, leaf anatomy change, reduction of leaf size, and reduction of total leaf area to limit the water loss and guarantee the photosynthesis process. Furthermore, drought stress influences gas exchange and other physiological parameters. Recent acquisitions on the mechanism of signal transduction and the development of drought tolerance in plants are useful to understand the action mechanisms.

In this context, this Special Issue aims to collect original and quantitative studies focusing on the effects of drought stress on horticultural plants. Studies conducted on different crops in open fields or in controlled environments are welcome. Particular attention will be paid to the analysis of the response mechanisms to drought stress.

Dr. Stefania Toscano
Dr. Giulia Franzoni
Dr. Sara Álvarez
Guest Editors

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Keywords

  • drought
  • plant physiology
  • adaptive mechanism
  • water use efficiency
  • oxidative stress
  • signal transduction

Published Papers (12 papers)

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Editorial

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4 pages, 207 KiB  
Editorial
Drought Stress in Horticultural Plants
by Stefania Toscano, Giulia Franzoni and Sara Álvarez
Horticulturae 2023, 9(1), 7; https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae9010007 - 21 Dec 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1334
Abstract
Drought stress is one of the main factors limiting horticultural crops, especially in environments such as the Mediterranean basin, which is often characterized by sub-optimal water availability [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drought Stress in Horticultural Plants)

Research

Jump to: Editorial, Review

20 pages, 4583 KiB  
Article
Application of Morphological and Physiological Markers for Study of Drought Tolerance in Lilium Varieties
by Xiang Li, Wenjie Jia, Jie Zheng, Lulin Ma, Qing Duan, Wenwen Du, Guangfen Cui, Xiangning Wang and Jihua Wang
Horticulturae 2022, 8(9), 786; https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae8090786 - 30 Aug 2022
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1630
Abstract
The shortage of water resources is an unfavourable factor that restricts the production of flowers. The use of drought-resistant morphological markers is of great significance to distinguish the drought resistance of flower varieties. In this paper, we study the difference in drought tolerance [...] Read more.
The shortage of water resources is an unfavourable factor that restricts the production of flowers. The use of drought-resistant morphological markers is of great significance to distinguish the drought resistance of flower varieties. In this paper, we study the difference in drought tolerance of seven common lily varieties in the flower market by morphological and physiological markers. The results showed that there were differences in leaf morphological indices and anatomical structures among the seven varieties. Drought reduced the chlorophyll content, inhibited the photosynthetic rate, and increased catalase (CAT), peroxidase (POD), superoxide dismutase (SOD), malondialdehyde (MDA), proline, soluble sugar, and soluble protein. After rewatering, the activities of CAT, POD, and SOD of ‘Lyon’, ‘Royal Sunset’, and ‘Robina’ varieties decreased, which was opposite to the varieties of ‘Immaculate’, ‘Elena’, ‘Siberia’, and ‘Gelria’. According to the membership function value of physiological indices, the drought resistance of seven lily varieties from weak to strong was ‘Immaculate’, ‘Elena’, ‘Siberia’, ‘Gelria’, ‘Robina’, ‘Royal Sunset’, and ‘Lyon’. Drought resistance is related to the thickness of leaves, palisade tissue, sponge tissue, and specific leaf area. Lily leaf structure can be used as one of the indices to judge drought resistance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drought Stress in Horticultural Plants)
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15 pages, 2281 KiB  
Article
Impact of Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria Inoculation on the Physiological Response and Productivity Traits of Field-Grown Tomatoes in Hungary
by Eszter Nemeskéri, Kitti Zsuzsanna Horváth, Bulgan Andryei, Riadh Ilahy, Sándor Takács, András Neményi, Zoltán Pék and Lajos Helyes
Horticulturae 2022, 8(7), 641; https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae8070641 - 14 Jul 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1969
Abstract
Drought-tolerant plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) may promote plant development under limited water supply conditions, when plant’s water demand is not completely satisfied under rain-fed conditions or when irrigation water availability is limited. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of [...] Read more.
Drought-tolerant plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) may promote plant development under limited water supply conditions, when plant’s water demand is not completely satisfied under rain-fed conditions or when irrigation water availability is limited. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of two inoculation treatments (B2: Alcaligenes sp. 3573, Bacillus sp. BAR16, and Bacillus sp. PAR11 strains and B3: Pseudomonas sp. MUS04, Rhodococcus sp. BAR03, and Variovorax sp. BAR04 strains) and compare those to a control (B0) without artificial inoculation on chlorophyll fluorescence, leaf chlorophyll content (SPAD value), canopy temperature, and the yield of the processing tomato cultivar H-1015 F1 grown under field conditions. The young seedlings of the hybrid tomato variety H-1015 F1 were immersed in 1% of B2 or B3 products (BAY-BIO, Szeged Hungary) for 5 min. Inoculated and untreated seedlings were grown under three irrigation treatments [regular irrigation (RI), deficit irrigation (DI), and no irrigation (I0)], to reveal the effect of PGPR under different levels of water stress. In the dry year (2018), higher canopy temperature and chlorophyll fluorescence (Fv/Fm) were measured during flowering in plants treated with bacteria than in untreated plants. In the stage of flowering and fruit setting, the B3 treatment led to a significant decrease in the Fv/Fm value, canopy temperature remained high, and the SPAD value was statistically the same in all treatments. Under limited water supply, in most cases, PGPR led to a significantly greater total yield but more unripe green berries compared to untreated plants. Under moderate water shortage (dry year + deficit irrigation), the B3 treatment resulted in 26% more ripe, marketable fruit and 49% less unripe fruit compared to the B2 treatment. On the other hand, in the wet year (2020), the bacterial treatments generally did not affect physiological properties, though the B2 treatment produced a higher marketable yield while the amount of green and diseased fruits did not differ statistically, compared to the B3 treatment under deficit irrigation. Based on our study, we recommend the application of the B3 PGPR product as it positively affected key physiological processes, leading to a higher marketable yield particularly under water shortage. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drought Stress in Horticultural Plants)
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21 pages, 2759 KiB  
Article
Molecular Characterization of Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) Accessions under Drought Stress
by Ibrahim Makhadmeh, Ammar A. Albalasmeh, Mohammed Ali, Samar G. Thabet, Walaa Ali Darabseh, Saied Jaradat and Ahmad M. Alqudah
Horticulturae 2022, 8(7), 600; https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae8070600 - 04 Jul 2022
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2601
Abstract
Exploring the genetic diversity among plant accessions is important for conserving and managing plant genetic resources. In the current study, a collection of forty-six tomato accessions from Jordan were evaluated based on their performance and their morpho-physiological, in addition to molecularly characterizing to [...] Read more.
Exploring the genetic diversity among plant accessions is important for conserving and managing plant genetic resources. In the current study, a collection of forty-six tomato accessions from Jordan were evaluated based on their performance and their morpho-physiological, in addition to molecularly characterizing to detect genetic diversity. Tomato accessions seedlings were exposed to drought stress with 70% field capacity and 40% field capacity under field conditions in Jordan. Drought stress had significantly negatively influenced the dry root weight, fresh root weight, root growth rate, fresh shoot weight, dry shoot weight, and shoot growth rate. Moreover, proline content showed a highly significant increase of 304.2% in response to drought stress. The analysis of twenty morphological characters revealed a wide range of variations among tomato accessions. Accessions were screened with fourteen SSR primers; six primers were informative to explain the genetic diversity. Based on resolving power, primers LEct004 and LEat018 were most significant with all 46 accessions. Interestingly, polymorphic information content (PIC) values ranged from 0.00 (Asr2 marker) to 0.499 (LEct004), which confirms that the SSR markers are highly informative. Our findings provide new insights into using informative molecular markers to elucidate such wide genetic variation discovered in our collections from Afraa and Abeel (the southern part of Jordan). Interestingly, the SSR markers were associated with genes, e.g., LEat018 with ACTIN_RELATED PROTEIN gene, the LEct004 with the HOMEOBOX PROTEIN TRANSCRIPTION FACTORS gene, and Asr2 with ABA/WDS. Moreover, the AUXIN RESPONSE FACTOR8 gene was associated with the LEta014 SSR marker and the LEta020 with the THIOREDOXIN FAMILY TRP26 gene. Therefore, the genetic diversity analysis and functional annotations of the genes associated with SSR information obtained in this study provide valuable information about the most suitable genotype that can be implemented in plant breeding programs and future molecular analysis. Furthermore, evaluating the performance of the collection under different water regimes is essential to produce new tomato varieties coping with drought stress conditions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drought Stress in Horticultural Plants)
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13 pages, 1330 KiB  
Article
Distinctive Physio-Biochemical Properties and Transcriptional Changes Unfold the Mungbean Cultivars Differing by Their Response to Drought Stress at Flowering Stage
by Gunasekaran Ariharasutharsan, Adhimoolam Karthikeyan, Vellaichamy Gandhimeyyan Renganathan, Vishvanathan Marthandan, Manickam Dhasarathan, Ayyavoo Ambigapathi, Manoharan Akilan, Subramani Palaniyappan, Irulappan Mariyammal, Muthaiyan Pandiyan and Natesan Senthil
Horticulturae 2022, 8(5), 424; https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae8050424 - 10 May 2022
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1818
Abstract
Mungbean is a nutritionally and economically important pulse crop cultivated around Asia, mainly in India. The crop is sensitive to drought at various developmental stages of its growing period. However, there is limited or almost no research on a comparative evaluation of mung-bean [...] Read more.
Mungbean is a nutritionally and economically important pulse crop cultivated around Asia, mainly in India. The crop is sensitive to drought at various developmental stages of its growing period. However, there is limited or almost no research on a comparative evaluation of mung-bean plants at the flowering stage under drought conditions. Hence, the aim of this research was to impose the drought stress on two mungbean cultivars VRM (Gg) 1 and CO6 at the flowering stage and assess the physio-biochemical and transcriptional changes. After imposing the drought stress, we found that VRM (Gg) 1 exhibited a low reduction in physiological traits (Chlorophyll, relative water content, and plant dry mass) and high proline content than CO6. Additionally, VRM (Gg) 1 has a low level of H2O2 and MDA contents and higher antioxidant enzymes (SOD, POD, and CAT) activity than CO6 during drought stress. The transcriptional analysis of photosynthesis (PS II-PsbP, PS II-LHC, PS I-PsaG/PsaK, and PEPC 3), antioxidant (SOD 2, POD, CAT 2), and drought-responsive genes (HSP-90, DREB2C, NAC 3 and AREB 2) show that VRM (Gg) 1 had increased transcripts more than CO6 under drought stress. Taken together, VRM (Gg) 1 had a better photosynthetic performance which resulted in fewer reductions in chlorophyll, relative water content, and plant dry mass during drought stress. In addition, higher antioxidative enzyme activities led to lower H2O2 and MDA levels, limiting oxidative damage in VRM (Gg) 1. This was positively correlated with increased transcripts of photosynthesis and antioxidant-related genes in VRM (Gg) 1. Further, the increased transcripts of drought-responsive genes indicate that VRM (Gg) 1 has a better genetic basis against drought stress than CO6. These findings help to understand the mungbean response to drought stress and will aid in the development of genotypes with greater drought tolerance by utilizing natural genetic variants. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drought Stress in Horticultural Plants)
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13 pages, 922 KiB  
Article
Graded Moisture Deficit Effect on Secondary Metabolites, Antioxidant, and Inhibitory Enzyme Activities in Leaf Extracts of Rosa damascena Mill. var. trigentipetala
by Kamel Hessini, Hanen Wasli, Hatim M. Al-Yasi, Esmat F. Ali, Ahmed A. Issa, Fahmy A. S. Hassan and Kadambot H. M. Siddique
Horticulturae 2022, 8(2), 177; https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae8020177 - 21 Feb 2022
Cited by 21 | Viewed by 2175
Abstract
Drought affects plant growth and yield in many agricultural areas worldwide by producing negative water potentials in the root zone that reduce water availability, affecting plant development and metabolism. This study investigated the effect of varying moisture regimes (100% field capacity (FC), well-watered [...] Read more.
Drought affects plant growth and yield in many agricultural areas worldwide by producing negative water potentials in the root zone that reduce water availability, affecting plant development and metabolism. This study investigated the effect of varying moisture regimes (100% field capacity (FC), well-watered plants, 50% FC (moderate water stress), and 25% FC (severe water stress)) on growth parameters, chlorophyll content, and bioactive molecule patterns, and the impact on antioxidant, lipoxygenase (LOX), and acetylcholinesterase (AChE) activities in Rosa damascena. The water deficit treatments reduced biomass production for both treatments (−29 and −33%, respectively, for MWS and SWS) and total chlorophyll (−18 and −38% respectively for MWS and SWS), relative to the control. The 50% FC treatment had the greatest effect on the phenolic profiles and their respective functionalities, with significant increases in the levels of total phenolic, benzoic (gallic, p-coumaric, and syringic acids) (+32%), and cinnamic (caffeic and trans-cinnamic acid) acids (+19%) and flavonoids (epicatechin-3-O-gallate) (+15%) compared to well-watered leaves (control leaves). The 50% FC treatment also exhibited the highest potential antioxidant activities (apart from NO-quenching activity), evidenced by the lowest IC50 and EC50 values. The inhibitory LOX and AChE capacities varied depending on the severity of stress, with superior activity in the 50% FC treatment. Overall, the drought tolerance in rose was associated mainly with its suitable manipulation of antioxidant production and orderly regulation of LOX and AChE activities. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drought Stress in Horticultural Plants)
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20 pages, 2971 KiB  
Article
Interactive Effects of Drought and Saline Aerosol Stress on Morphological and Physiological Characteristics of Two Ornamental Shrub Species
by Stefania Toscano, Antonio Ferrante, Daniela Romano and Alessandro Tribulato
Horticulturae 2021, 7(12), 517; https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae7120517 - 23 Nov 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 1676
Abstract
Effects of drought and aerosol stresses were studied in a factorial experiment based on a Randomized Complete Design with triplicates on two ornamental shrubs. Treatments consisted of four levels of water container (40%, 30%, 20%, and 10% of water volumetric content of the [...] Read more.
Effects of drought and aerosol stresses were studied in a factorial experiment based on a Randomized Complete Design with triplicates on two ornamental shrubs. Treatments consisted of four levels of water container (40%, 30%, 20%, and 10% of water volumetric content of the substrate) and, after 30 days from experiment onset, three aerosol treatments (distilled water and 50% and 100% salt sea water concentrations). The trial was contextually replicated on two species: Callistemon citrinus (Curtis) Skeels and Viburnum tinus L. ‘Lucidum’. In both species, increasing drought stress negatively affected dry biomass, leaf area, net photosynthesis, chlorophyll a fluorescence, and relative water content. The added saline aerosol stress induced a further physiological water deficit in plants of both species, with more emphasis on Callistemon. The interaction between the two stress conditions was found to be additive for almost all the physiological parameters, resulting in enhanced damage on plants under stress combination. Total biomass, for effect of combined stresses, ranged from 120.1 to 86.4 g plant−1 in Callistemon and from 122.3 to 94.6 g plant−1 in Viburnum. The net photosynthesis in Callistemon declined by the 70% after 30 days in WC 10% and by the 45% and 53% in WC 20% and WC 10% respectively after 60 days. In Viburnum plants, since the first measurement (7 days), a decrease of net photosynthesis was observed for the more stressed treatments (WC 20% and WC 10%), by 57%. The overall data suggested that Viburnum was more tolerant compared the Callistemon under the experimental conditions studied. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drought Stress in Horticultural Plants)
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17 pages, 3001 KiB  
Article
Morphological, Physiological, and Biochemical Responses of Zinnia to Drought Stress
by Stefania Toscano and Daniela Romano
Horticulturae 2021, 7(10), 362; https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae7100362 - 04 Oct 2021
Cited by 11 | Viewed by 3121
Abstract
Bedding plants in the nursery phase are often subject to drought stress because of the small volume of the containers and the hydraulic conductivity of organic substrates used. To analyse the morphological, physiological, and enzymatic responses of zinnia (Zinnia elegans L.) plants [...] Read more.
Bedding plants in the nursery phase are often subject to drought stress because of the small volume of the containers and the hydraulic conductivity of organic substrates used. To analyse the morphological, physiological, and enzymatic responses of zinnia (Zinnia elegans L.) plants at different irrigation levels, four treatments were performed: irrigated at 100% (100% field capacity, FC); light deficit irrigation (75% FC), medium deficit irrigation (50% FC), and severe deficit irrigation (25% FC). The growth of zinnia was significantly influenced by drought stress treatments. Different morphological parameters (dry biomass, leaf number, root to shoot ratio (R/S)) were modified only in the more severe drought stress treatment (25% FC). The stomata density increased in 50% FC and 25% FC, while the stomata size was reduced in 25% FC. The net photosynthesis, stomatal conductance, and transpiration were reduced in 50% FC and 25% FC. The relative water content (RWC) was reduced in 25% FC. Severe drought stress (25% FC) increased proline content up to seven-fold. Catalase (CAT), peroxidase (GPX), and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity significantly increased in 50% FC and 25% FC. Principal component analysis (PCA) showed that the morphological and physiological parameters were mostly associated with the 100% FC and 75% FC treatments of the biplot, whereas the stomata density, R/S ratio, and antioxidant enzymes (GPX, CAT) were associated with 50% FC, and proline and DPPH were associated with 25% FC, respectively. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drought Stress in Horticultural Plants)
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17 pages, 4522 KiB  
Article
Estimation of Water Stress in Potato Plants Using Hyperspectral Imagery and Machine Learning Algorithms
by Julio Martin Duarte-Carvajalino, Elías Alexander Silva-Arero, Gerardo Antonio Góez-Vinasco, Laura Marcela Torres-Delgado, Oscar Dubán Ocampo-Paez and Angela María Castaño-Marín
Horticulturae 2021, 7(7), 176; https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae7070176 - 02 Jul 2021
Cited by 16 | Viewed by 3613
Abstract
This work presents quantitative detection of water stress and estimation of the water stress level: none, light, moderate, and severe on potato crops. We use hyperspectral imagery and state of the art machine learning algorithms: random decision forest, multilayer perceptron, convolutional neural networks, [...] Read more.
This work presents quantitative detection of water stress and estimation of the water stress level: none, light, moderate, and severe on potato crops. We use hyperspectral imagery and state of the art machine learning algorithms: random decision forest, multilayer perceptron, convolutional neural networks, support vector machines, extreme gradient boost, and AdaBoost. The detection and estimation of water stress in potato crops is carried out on two different phenological stages of the plants: tubers differentiation and maximum tuberization. The machine learning algorithms are trained with a small subset of each hyperspectral image corresponding to the plant canopy. The results are improved using majority voting to classify all the canopy pixels in the hyperspectral images. The results indicate that both detection of water stress and estimation of the level of water stress can be obtained with good accuracy, improved further by majority voting. The importance of each band of the hyperspectral images in the classification of the images is assessed by random forest and extreme gradient boost, which are the machine learning algorithms that perform best overall on both phenological stages and detection and estimation of water stress in potato crops. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drought Stress in Horticultural Plants)
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14 pages, 11969 KiB  
Article
Cowpea Ecophysiological Responses to Accumulated Water Deficiency during the Reproductive Phase in Northeastern Pará, Brazil
by Denilson P. Ferreira, Denis P. Sousa, Hildo G. G. C. Nunes, João Vitor N. Pinto, Vivian D. S. Farias, Deborah L. P. Costa, Vandeilson B. Moura, Erika Teixeira, Adriano M. L. Sousa, Hugo A. Pinheiro and Paulo Jorge de O. P. Souza
Horticulturae 2021, 7(5), 116; https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae7050116 - 18 May 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 2108
Abstract
Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.) is a leguminous species widely cultivated in northern and northeastern Brazil. In the state of Pará, this crop still has low productivity due to several factors, such as low soil fertility and climatic adversity, especially the water [...] Read more.
Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp.) is a leguminous species widely cultivated in northern and northeastern Brazil. In the state of Pará, this crop still has low productivity due to several factors, such as low soil fertility and climatic adversity, especially the water deficiency. Therefore, the present study aimed at evaluating the physiological parameters and the productivity of cowpea plants under different water depths. The experiment was conducted in Castanhal/Pará between 2015 and 2016. A randomized block design was applied with six replications and four treatments, represented by the replacement of 100%, 50%, 25% and 0% of the water lost during crop evapotranspiration (ETc), starting from the reproductive stage. The rates of net photosynthesis (A), stomatal conductance (gs), leaf transpiration (Eleaf), substomatal CO2 concentration (Ci), leaf temperature (Tleaf) and leaf water potential (Ψw) were determined in four measurements at the R5, R7, R8 and R9 phenological stages. Cowpea was sensitive to the water availability in the soil, showing a significant difference between treatments for physiological variables and productivity. Upon reaching a Ψw equal to −0.88 MPa, the studied variables showed important changes, which allows establishing this value as a threshold for the crop regarding water stress under such experimental conditions. The different water levels in the soil directly influenced productivity for both years, indicating that the proper water supply leads to better crop growth and development, increasing productivity. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drought Stress in Horticultural Plants)
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Review

Jump to: Editorial, Research

23 pages, 832 KiB  
Review
Biochemical, Physiological, and Molecular Aspects of Ornamental Plants Adaptation to Deficit Irrigation
by Maria Giordano, Spyridon A. Petropoulos, Chiara Cirillo and Youssef Rouphael
Horticulturae 2021, 7(5), 107; https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae7050107 - 10 May 2021
Cited by 27 | Viewed by 4868
Abstract
There is increasing concern regarding global warming and its severe impact on the farming sector and food security. Incidences of extreme weather conditions are becoming more and more frequent, posing plants to stressful conditions, such as flooding, drought, heat, or frost etc. Especially [...] Read more.
There is increasing concern regarding global warming and its severe impact on the farming sector and food security. Incidences of extreme weather conditions are becoming more and more frequent, posing plants to stressful conditions, such as flooding, drought, heat, or frost etc. Especially for arid lands, there is a tug-of-war between keeping high crop yields and increasing water use efficiency of limited water resources. This difficult task can be achieved through the selection of tolerant water stress species or by increasing the tolerance of sensitive species. In this scenario, it is important to understand the response of plants to water stress. So far, the response of staple foods and vegetable crops to deficit irrigation is well studied. However, there is lack of literature regarding the responses of ornamental plants to water stress conditions. Considering the importance of this ever-growing sector for the agricultural sector, this review aims to reveal the defense mechanisms and the involved morpho-physiological, biochemical, and molecular changes in ornamental plant’s responses to deficit irrigation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drought Stress in Horticultural Plants)
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36 pages, 865 KiB  
Review
Response Mechanism of Plants to Drought Stress
by Xinyi Yang, Meiqi Lu, Yufei Wang, Yiran Wang, Zhijie Liu and Su Chen
Horticulturae 2021, 7(3), 50; https://doi.org/10.3390/horticulturae7030050 - 13 Mar 2021
Cited by 286 | Viewed by 32446
Abstract
With the global climate anomalies and the destruction of ecological balance, the water shortage has become a serious ecological problem facing all mankind, and drought has become a key factor restricting the development of agricultural production. Therefore, it is essential to study the [...] Read more.
With the global climate anomalies and the destruction of ecological balance, the water shortage has become a serious ecological problem facing all mankind, and drought has become a key factor restricting the development of agricultural production. Therefore, it is essential to study the drought tolerance of crops. Based on previous studies, we reviewed the effects of drought stress on plant morphology and physiology, including the changes of external morphology and internal structure of root, stem, and leaf, the effects of drought stress on osmotic regulation substances, drought-induced proteins, and active oxygen metabolism of plants. In this paper, the main drought stress signals and signal transduction pathways in plants are described, and the functional genes and regulatory genes related to drought stress are listed, respectively. We summarize the above aspects to provide valuable background knowledge and theoretical basis for future agriculture, forestry breeding, and cultivation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Drought Stress in Horticultural Plants)
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