Effects of thermopriming and bacteria-mediated heat-stress acclimation strategies on seed yield and quality criteria in Brassica napus cv Aviso and Camelina sativa cv Calena.

Abstract

The effects of intense heat during the reproductive phase of two Brassica species-B. napus and C. sativa-could be alleviated by a prior gradual increase exposure and/or PGPR inoculation. Abct. Among extreme weather events caused by climate change, heat waves are one of the most threatening issues for food security. Heat stress is known to be particularly penalizing at the reproductive stage for oleaginous crops, such as oilseed rape and camelina, and is responsible for crop failures as a consequence of yield losses and lower quality of harvest plants parts. In this context, our study aims to analyze two acclimation strategies that rely on the induction of signals prior to an intense heat stress event, i.e., thermopriming (herein, a gradual increase in temperature) and bacteria inoculations (herein, two Plant Growth-Promoting Rhizobacteria (PGPR) were tested). In the two experiments, we assessed the expected beneficial effects of these two acclimation strategies on yield components, seed quality criteria (nutritional and related to dormancy). While thermopriming improved heat stress tolerance in B. napus cv Aviso by maintaining yield, seed nutritional quality and seed dormancy, the effects of the gradual increase prior to the heat stress were even more negative than the later intense heat stress event in C. sativa cv Calena which resulted in cumulated negative effects. The experimentation based on PGPR inoculation highlighted similar trends to thermopriming in B. napus cv Aviso but to a lesser extent. However, in C. sativa cv Calena, very weak effects of PGPR inoculation upon heat stress were observed. Finally, these two acclimation strategies were shown to help alleviate the impacts of intense heat stress but in a species-dependent manner. This study should be deepened by exploring the behaviors of more cultivars of oilseed rape and camelina in the perspective to generalize these results at the species scale.