Morphological, Physiological, and Metabolic Responses of Diverse Barley Inbreds to Dry Down and Moderate Drought Stress

Autor: Shrestha, Asis; König, Tobias; Meikle, Lena Adler; Westhoff, Philipp; Erban, Alexander; Stich, Benjamin
In:

Food and Energy Security

Bandangabe: 14
Auflage: 3
DOI: 10.1002/fes3.70102
Jahr: 2025

Einordung:
Institut: Professur Züchterische Nutzung pflanzengenetischer Ressourcen

Abstract:
Drought stress alters the plant metabolism, physiology, and growth, and such responses might differ with the intensity of stress.
We evaluated the genotypic diversity in plant morphology, photosynthetic responses, metabolite shift, and their relationship in
23 genetically diverse barley inbreds under control, dry down (DD), and moderate drought (MD) stress. DD triggered strong in-
hibition of photosynthetic health, while reducing plant size was the key strategy under MD stress. We observed that the induced
changes under both stress scenarios occurred in a genotype-dependent manner. Compared to control conditions, the metabolism
of simple sugars and polyhydroxy acids increased in MD and DD, while the maximum accumulation of amino acids, lipids, and
phosphates occurred in DD stress. Accumulation of sugars and metabolites with unknown classification was the metabolic sig-
nature of drought-tolerant inbreds. Nevertheless, accumulation of a large pool of metabolites, including lipids, polyhydroxy acids,
and amino acids in an inbred did not have a positive effect on drought tolerance and might be metabolically costly. The inbred
plants’ tolerance to MD and DD originated from the semi-arid or sub-tropical regions, while drought-sensitive inbreds primarily
came from temperate regions. Low stomata density, reduced water loss, and retarded growth under drought stress were the key
features of inbreds with better survival capacity under severe dehydration. We identified drought-tolerant barley inbreds, and our
study offers resources for future genetic research on various drought tolerance strategies.

Ansprechpartner

Weitere Information im WWW

Zur Publikation: Mitarbeiter, Projekte
Weitere Publikationen im Forschungsteilschwerpunkt