How does long-term drought acclimation modify structure-function relationships? A quantitative approach to leaf phenotypic plasticity of barley.
Funct Plant Biol
; 45(12): 1181-1194, 2018 11.
Article
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| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-32291009
ABSTRACT
Under drought conditions the growth and survival of a plant depend on its adaptive characteristics and acclimation ability. Adaptation refers to inherent morpho-physiological characters providing protection against water losses. Acclimation, however, is a special case of phenotypic plasticity environment-dependent phenotypic expression resulting to a 'new' phenotype through drought-induced modulations in leaf morphology, anatomy and physiology. Given that phenotypic plasticity influences environmental tolerance, a multi-trait plasticity index could be of great importance. Therefore, we examined the acclimation processes of three different barley genotypes using a multi-trait plasticity assessment with emphasis on the leaf water economy-related traits. Our results showed that (i) the structure-function co-ordination during long-term drought acclimation follows the trade-off between carbon gain and water saving as well as the competition between investments in photosynthesis vs synthesis of protective compounds; (ii) the genotypes with smaller leaf area, narrower and denser veins, as well as smaller and denser stomata i.e. traits providing tolerance, exhibited less drastic adjustments under stress conditions, suggesting a trade-off between acclimation and tolerance-adaptation; and (iii) the slope values of a multi-trait 'reaction norm' based on regression analysis of PCA scores were indicative of the degree of plasticity for each genotype, providing an accurate representation of a complex set of data with single numeric results easily comparable.
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Colección:
01-internacional
Banco de datos:
MEDLINE
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Hordeum
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Idioma:
En
Revista:
Funct Plant Biol
Año:
2018
Tipo del documento:
Article
País de afiliación:
Grecia