Cultivated crops are generally expected to have less abiotic stress tolerance than their wild relatives. However, this assumption is not well supported by empirical literature and may depend on the type of stress and how it is imposed, as well as the measure of tolerance being used. Here, we investigated whether wild and cultivated accessions of
Flowering time and water‐use efficiency (
- PAR ID:
- 10196852
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Ecology and Evolution
- Volume:
- 4
- Issue:
- 23
- ISSN:
- 2045-7758
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: p. 4505-4521
- Size(s):
- p. 4505-4521
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract differed in stress tolerance assessed as proportional decline in biomass due to drought and whether wild and cultivated accessions differed in trait responses to drought and trait associations with tolerance. In a greenhouse study,Helianthus annuus accessions in the two domestication classes (eight cultivated and eight wild accessions) received two treatments: a well‐watered control and a moderate drought implemented as a dry down followed by maintenance at a predetermined soil moisture level with automated irrigation. Treatments were imposed at the seedling stage, and plants were harvested after 2 weeks of treatment. The proportional biomass decline in response to drought was 24% for cultivatedH. annuus accessions but was not significant for the wild accessions. Thus, using the metric of proportional biomass decline, the cultivated accessions had less drought tolerance. Among accessions, there was no tradeoff between drought tolerance and vigor assessed as biomass in the control treatment. In a multivariate analysis, wild and cultivated accessions did not differ from each other or in response to drought for a subset of morphological, physiological, and allocational traits. Analyzed individually, traits varied in response to drought in wild and/or cultivated accessions, including declines in specific leaf area, leaf theoretical maximum stomatal conductance (gsmax), and stomatal pore length, but there was no treatment response for stomatal density, succulence, or the ability to osmotically adjust. Focusing on traits associations with tolerance, plasticity in gsmaxwas the most interesting because its association with tolerance differed by domestication class (although the effects were relatively weak) and thus might contribute to lower tolerance of cultivated sunflower. OurH. annuus results support the expectation that stress tolerance is lower in crops than wild relatives under some conditions. However, determining the key traits that underpin differences in moderate drought tolerance between wild and cultivatedH. annuus remains elusive.H. annuus -
Summary Many plants require prolonged exposure to cold to acquire the competence to flower. The process by which cold exposure results in competence is known as vernalization. In
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