Diego Alejandro Gutiérrez-Villamil, Helber Enrique Balaguera-López, Oscar Humberto Alvarado-Sanabria, Javier Giovanni Álvarez-Herrera, Luz Marina Melgarejo
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引用次数: 0
Key message
A 4-day or more duration of flooding is considered a critical stress period for tree tomato plants, as they do not recover their plant water status, electron transport in photosystems, or growth during the post-stress period.
Abstract
The tree tomato (Solanum betaceum Cav.) is a tropical fruit tree affected by climate variability, especially by flooding phenomena, which are projected to increase in the coming years, causing damage to the physiology and development of crops. Therefore, the objective of this research was to characterize the physiological response of the tree tomato in the vegetative stage under different days of flood duration (0, 2, 4, and 6 days) and later in the recovery period (14 days), in plants grown under controlled shade conditions. Stomatal conductance (gs), leaf water potential (Ψleaf), leaf insertion angle, pigment concentration, chlorophyll a fluorescence, and plant growth were quantified. The results indicated that with 2 days of flooding, gs, total chlorophyll concentration, root dry weight, and leaf area decreased slightly compared to the control. With 4 days of flooding, the plants showed more significant reductions in gs and Ψleaf, which allowed the tree tomato to be classified as an isohydric plant. The 6-day flooding completely dehydrated the leaves. In addition, for the 4 and 6 days of flooding, the OJIP curves showed that the plants had lower photosynthetic efficiency, which was reflected in the reduction of the maximum photochemical quantum efficiency Fv/Fm, quantum yields, energy fluxes per reaction center, and linear electron flow (LEF). These parameters were more affected in the recovery period. The carotenoid concentration and non-photochemical dissipation ΦNPQ increased as a photoprotective mechanism to dissipate excess energy. The biomass of the root and the aerial part decreased significantly as the intensity of the flooding increased. These results show that a time greater than or equal to 4 days of flooding with shade in tree tomato plants is considered a critical stress period.
期刊介绍：
Trees - Structure and Function publishes original articles on the physiology, biochemistry, functional anatomy, structure and ecology of trees and other woody plants. Also presented are articles concerned with pathology and technological problems, when they contribute to the basic understanding of structure and function of trees. In addition to original articles and short communications, the journal publishes reviews on selected topics concerning the structure and function of trees.
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