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Contrasting responses to drought stress in herbaceous perennial legumes

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Abstract

Background and aims

Medicago sativa L. is widely grown in southern Australia, but is poorly adapted to dry, hot summers. This study aimed to identify perennial herbaceous legumes with greater resistance to drought stress and explore their adaptive strategies.

Methods

Ten herbaceous perennial legume species/accessions were grown in deep pots in a sandy, low-phosphorus field soil in a glasshouse. Drought stress was imposed by ceasing to water. A companion M. sativa plant in each pot minimised differences in leaf area and water consumption among species. Plants were harvested when stomatal conductance of stressed plants decreased to around 10% of well watered plants.

Results

A range of responses to drought stress were identified, including: reduced shoot growth; leaf curling; thicker pubescence on leaves and stems; an increased root:shoot ratio; an increase, decrease or no change in root distribution with depth; reductions in specific leaf area or leaf water potential; and osmotic adjustment. The suite of changes differed substantially among species and, less so, among accessions.

Conclusions

The inter- and intra-specific variability of responses to drought-stress in the plants examined suggests a wide range of strategies are available in perennial legumes to cope with drying conditions, and these could be harnessed in breeding/selection programs.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC), Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC), the Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia (DAFWA), Heritage Seeds, the Chemistry Centre of Western Australia, and the Facey Group and Mingenew Irwin Group. We thank Dr Daniel Real (DAFWA), Dr Matthew Denton (DPI, Victoria) and Mr Richard Bennett (UWA) who provided legume seeds and rhizobia, and Mr. Darryl McClements (DAFWA) who provided technical help.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Plant Biology, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA, 6009, Australia

    Jiayin Pang, Phil Ward, Hans Lambers & Megan Ryan

  2. Institute of Grassland Science, Key Laboratory of Vegetation Ecology, Ministry of Education, Northeast Normal University, Changchun, 130024, China

    Jiyun Yang

  3. CSIRO Plant Industry, Centre for Environment and Life Sciences, Private Bag No. 5, Wembley, WA, 6913, Australia

    Jiayin Pang & Phil Ward

  4. The UWA Institute of Agriculture, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA, 6009, Australia

    Jiayin Pang, Kadambot H. M. Siddique, Hans Lambers & Megan Ryan

  5. School of Earth and Environment, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA, 6009, Australia

    Mark Tibbett

  6. National Soil Resources Institute, Department of Environmental Science and Technology, Cranfield University, Bedfordshire, England, UK

    Mark Tibbett

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  1. Jiayin Pang
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  2. Jiyun Yang
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  3. Phil Ward
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  4. Kadambot H. M. Siddique
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  5. Hans Lambers
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  6. Mark Tibbett
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  7. Megan Ryan
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Correspondence to Jiayin Pang.

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Responsible Editor: Caixian Tang.

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Pang, J., Yang, J., Ward, P. et al. Contrasting responses to drought stress in herbaceous perennial legumes. Plant Soil 348, 299–314 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-011-0904-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-011-0904-x

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