Physiological Screening for Drought Tolerance Traits in Vegetable Amaranth ( Amaranthus tricolor ) Germplasm

Norain Jamalluddin, Festo J. Massawe, Sean Mayes, Wai Kuan Ho, Ajit Singh and Rachael C. Symonds
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Norain Jamalluddin: Future Food Beacon, School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Jalan Broga, Semenyih 43500, Selangor, Malaysia
Festo J. Massawe: Future Food Beacon, School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Jalan Broga, Semenyih 43500, Selangor, Malaysia
Sean Mayes: Future Food Beacon, School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Jalan Broga, Semenyih 43500, Selangor, Malaysia
Wai Kuan Ho: Future Food Beacon, School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Jalan Broga, Semenyih 43500, Selangor, Malaysia
Ajit Singh: Future Food Beacon, School of Biosciences, University of Nottingham Malaysia, Jalan Broga, Semenyih 43500, Selangor, Malaysia
Rachael C. Symonds: School of Biological and Environmental Sciences, Liverpool John Moores University, Byrom St, Liverpool L3 3AF, UK

Agriculture, 2021, vol. 11, issue 10, 1-21

Abstract: Amaranth ( Amaranthus tricolor ), an underutilized climate smart crop, is highly nutritious and possesses diverse drought tolerance traits, making it an ideal crop to thrive in a rapidly changing climate. Despite considerable studies on the growth and physiology of plants subjected to drought stress, a precise trait phenotyping strategy for drought tolerance in vegetable amaranth is still not well documented. In this study, two drought screening trials were carried out on 44 A. tricolor accessions in order to identify potential drought-tolerant A. tricolor germplasm and to discern their physiological responses to drought stress. The findings revealed that a change in stem biomass was most likely the main mechanism of drought adaptation for stress recovery, and dark-adapted quantum yield (Fv/Fm) could be a useful parameter for identifying drought tolerance in amaranth. Three drought tolerance indices: geometric mean productivity (GMP), mean productivity (MP) and stress tolerance index (STI) identified eight drought-tolerant accessions with stable performance across the two screening trials. The highly significant genotypic differences observed in several physiological traits among the amaranth accessions indicate that the amaranth panel used in this study could be a rich source of genetic diversity for breeding purposes for drought tolerance traits.

Keywords: drought tolerance indices; plant physiological parameters; relative water content; chlorophyll a fluorescence parameters; photosynthetic leaf gas exchange; photosynthetic rate; stomatal conductance; intercellular CO 2 concentration; transpiration rate (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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