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Water stress impact on young seedling growth of Acacia arabica

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Abstract

Drought is the major constraint in arid regions throughout the world and identification of drought-resistant plants is therefore of crucial importance. Since young seedling stage is especially sensitive to water stress, the present work analyzed the physiological behavior of seedling from Acacia arabica issued from a dry area, grown under controlled environmental conditions and subjected to progressive soil drying. Although soil gravimetric water content (g H2O g−1 soil dry weight) dropped from 80 % to less than 35 %, most plants remained alive until the end of the water stress. Seedlings were able to efficiently close their stomata to reduce water losses and accumulated high amounts of proline. Despite osmotic adjustment, turgor pressure decreased in stressed plants and could explain the stress-induced inhibition of plant growth. Decrease in net photosynthesis was related to stress-induced decrease in stomatal conductance and not to any impact on chlorophyll concentration or fluorescence-related parameter: both PSII efficiency and photochemical quenching remained unaffected by water stress while drought-induced increase in non-photochemical quenching should be regarded as a strategy to avoid over-energisation of the photosynthetic apparatus. Instantaneous water use efficiency increased in stressed plants comparative to controls. Oxidative stress estimated by malondialdehyde concentration was recorded only at the end of the treatment, suggesting that stressed plants remained able to cope with reactive oxygen species. Water stress induced an increase in anthocyanins, while aglycone flavonols decreased. Those compounds were not involved in the management of oxidative stress. It is concluded that A. arabica is a promising drought-resistant plant species for rehabilitation of dry areas.

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Abbreviations

A :

Net CO2 assimilation rate

Θ:

Soil water content

E :

Instantaneous transpiration rate

ETR:

Electron transport rate

F v /F m :

Maximal efficiency of PSII

g s :

Stomatal conductance

NPQ:

Non-photochemical quenching

ΦPSII:

Photosystem II efficiency

Ψs :

Osmotic potential

Ψw :

Water potential

qP:

Photochemical quenching

RWC:

Relative water content

WC:

Water content

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by Wallonie-Bruxelles International (WBI; project de coopération 2—axe 4) and by the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (Conventions N° 1.5117.11 and 1.5114.11). The authors are very grateful to Brigitte Van Pee for technical assistance and to Université catholique de Louvain (Secrétariat à la cooperation) for the PhD grant of Nassima Lasoussane.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. École Nationale Supérieure d’Agronomie (ENSA), Avenue Hassan Badi, El Harrach, Algiers, 16200, Algeria

    Nassima Lassouane

  2. Faculté des Sciences Biologiques (FSB), Équipe de Physiologie Végétale/Laboratoire de Biologie et Physiologie des Organismes (LBPO), Université des Sciences et de la Technologie Houari Boumediene (USTHB), BP 32, El Alia, Bab Ezzouar, 16111, Algiers, Algeria

    Nassima Lassouane & Fatiha Aïd

  3. Groupe de Recherche en Physiologie végétale (GRPV), Earth and Life Institute-Agronomy (ELI-A), Université Catholique de Louvain, 5 (L7.07.13) Place Croix du Sud, 1348, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

    Nassima Lassouane & Stanley Lutts

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  1. Nassima Lassouane
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  2. Fatiha Aïd
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  3. Stanley Lutts
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Correspondence to Stanley Lutts.

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Communicated by R. Aroca.

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Lassouane, N., Aïd, F. & Lutts, S. Water stress impact on young seedling growth of Acacia arabica . Acta Physiol Plant 35, 2157–2169 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-013-1252-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-013-1252-7

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