Transpiration Response and Growth in Pearl Millet Parental Lines and Hybrids Bred for Contrasting Rainfall Environments

Medina, S and Gupta, S K and Vadez, V (2017) Transpiration Response and Growth in Pearl Millet Parental Lines and Hybrids Bred for Contrasting Rainfall Environments. Frontiers in Plant Science, 8 (1846). pp. 1-16. ISSN 1664-462X

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Abstract

Under conditions of high vapor pressure deficit (VPD) and soil drying, restricting transpiration is an important avenue to gain efficiency in water use. The question we raise in this article is whether breeding for agro-ecological environments that differ for the rainfall have selected for traits that control plant water use. These are measured in pearl millet materials bred for zones varying in rainfall (8 combinations of parent and F1-hybrids, 18 F1-hybrids and then 40 F1-hybrids). In all cases, we found an agro-ecological variation in the slope of the transpiration response to increasing VPD, and parental line variation in the transpiration response to soil drying within hybrids/parent combinations. The hybrids adapted to lower rainfall had higher transpiration response curves than those from the highest rainfall zones, but showed no variation in how transpiration responded to soil drying. The genotypes bred for lower rainfall zones showed lower leaf area, dry matter, thicker leaves, root development, and exudation, than the ones bred for high rainfall zone when grown in the low VPD environment of the greenhouse, but there was no difference in their root length neither on the root/shoot index in these genotypes. By contrast, when grown under high VPD conditions outdoors, the lower rainfall hybrids had the highest leaf, tiller, and biomass development. Finally, under soil drying the genotypes from the lower rainfall accumulated less biomass than the ones from higher rainfall zone, and so did the parental lines compared to the hybrids. These differences in the transpiration response and growth clearly showed that breeding for different agro-ecological zones also bred for different genotype strategies in relation to traits related to plant water use.

Item Type: Article
Divisions: Research Program : Asia
Research Program : Innovation Systems for the Drylands (ISD)
CRP: UNSPECIFIED
Uncontrolled Keywords: Adaptation, environment, rainfall, pearl millet, VPD response, FTSW threshold, leaf development, growth, high vapor pressure deficit, physiology
Subjects: Others > Plant Breeding
Mandate crops > Millets > Pearl Millet
Others > Plant Physiology
Others > Plant Growth
Others > Water Resources
Depositing User: Mr Ramesh K
Date Deposited: 29 Nov 2017 11:12
Last Modified: 29 Nov 2017 11:12
URI: http://oar.icrisat.org/id/eprint/10336
Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2017.01846
Projects: UNSPECIFIED
Funders: UNSPECIFIED
Acknowledgement: We thank the GEMS group from Crop Physiology-ICRISAT for technical assistance.Operational expenses were funded by a grant from USAID (Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Climate Resilient Pearl Millet). Also SM was the recipient of a fellowship “Presidente de la República PRONABEC-III” from Peruvian Government.
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