Abstract
The present study aimed to determine effects of drought stress on Lycium ruthenicum Murr. seedlings. Our results showed that mild drought stress was beneficial to growth of L. ruthenicum seedlings. Their height, basal diameter, crown, leaf number, stem dry mass, leaf and root dry mass increased gradually when the soil water content declined from 34.7 to 21.2%. However, with further decrease of the soil water content, the growth of L. ruthenicum seedlings was limited. After 28 d of treatment, the seedlings were apparently vulnerable to drought stress, which resulted in significant leaf shedding and slow growth. However, growth was restored after rehydration. Drought treatments led to a decrease in contents of chlorophyll (Chl) a, b, and Chl (a+b) and increase in the Chl a/b ratio. After rewatering, the Chl content recovered to the content of the control plants. Under drought stress, minimal fluorescence and nonphotochemical quenching coefficient increased, thereby indicating that L. ruthenicum seedlings could protect PSII reaction centres from damage. Maximum fluorescence, maximum quantum yield, actual quantum yield of PSII photochemistry, and photochemical quenching decreased, which suggested that drought stress impacted the openness of PSII reaction centres. A comparison of these responses might help identify the drought tolerance mechanisms of L. ruthenicum. This could be the reference for the planting location and irrigation arrangements during the growing period of L. ruthenicum.
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Abbreviations
- Chl:
-
chlorophyll
- CK:
-
control
- DAT:
-
days of treatment
- DM:
-
dry mass
- DS:
-
drought stress
- F0 :
-
minimal fluorescence
- Fm :
-
maximum fluorescence
- Fv/Fm :
-
the maximum quantum yield of PSII
- qN:
-
the nonphotochemical quenching
- qP:
-
the photochemical quenching
- R:S:
-
the root to shoot ratio
- RWC:
-
relative water content
- ФPSII :
-
the quantum yield of PSII
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Acknowledgments: This work was supported by programs of National Natural Science Foundation (31460189) and the Scientific Research Project of the Higher Education Institutions of Gansu Province (2014A-111). We also thank the anonymous reviewers for reviewing the manuscript and offering helpful suggestions.
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Guo, Y.Y., Yu, HY., Kong, DS. et al. Effects of drought stress on growth and chlorophyll fluorescence of Lycium ruthenicum Murr. seedlings. Photosynthetica 54, 524–531 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11099-016-0206-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11099-016-0206-x