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Growth, gas exchange, and water-use efficiency response of two young apple cultivars to drought stress in two scion-one rootstock grafting system

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Photosynthetica

Abstract

The combination of two scion-one rootstock was used for two apple cultivars, ‘Pink Lady’ and ‘Qinguan’, budded on the same, one-year-old Malus hupehensis (Pamp.) Rehd. to reduce the impact of root and pot size and in order to understand the growth, water-use efficiency (WUE), and chlorophyll fluorescence characteristics. The two-scion grafted trees were planted in plastic pots under two water regimes, i.e. 70% field capacity (FC) and 55% FC. Results indicated that different scions were affected differently by drought stress. ‘Pink Lady’ had higher net photosynthetic rate (P N), stomatal conductance (g s), and transpiration rate (E) compared with ‘Qinguan’ under both water treatments. However, ‘Qinguan’ had lower minimal fluorescence (F0), higher maximum fluorescence (Fm), and higher maximum photochemical efficiency of photosystem II (Fv/Fm) than ‘Pink Lady’ at 55% FC. Moreover, ‘Qinguan’ had larger shoot dry mass (ShDM) and higher intrinsic WUEI than ‘Pink Lady’ under both water status. Gas-exchange and growth parameters, except for P N and scion diameter, were significantly affected by the cultivar and water treatment. At 70% FC, ShDM was significantly correlated with WUEI. Moreover, WUEI was negatively linearly correlated with g s at either 70 or 55% FC. These results might indicate that ‘Pink Lady’ was more sensitive to drought than ‘Qinguan’. ‘Qinguan’ apple was able to improve WUE more than ‘Pink Lady’ under both well-watered and drought conditions. The growth parameters and photosynthetic capacity of two different scions showed that the combination of double scion-one rootstock might eliminate the influences of the rootstock and pot size.

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Abbreviations

Chl:

chlorophyll

DMG:

plant dry mass gain

E :

leaf transpiration rate

FC:

field capacity

Fm :

maximum fluorescence

Fv/Fm :

maximum photochemical efficiency of PSII

F0 :

minimum fluorescence

g s :

stomatal conductance

LDM:

leaf dry mass

PDT:

plant daily transpiration

P N :

net photosynthesis rate

PSII:

photosystem II

RDM:

rootstock dry mass

SD:

scion diameter

SH:

shoot height

ShDM:

shoot dry mass

StDM:

stem dry mass

S/R:

shoot/root ratio

WUE:

water-use efficiency

WUEI :

intrinsic water-use efficiency

WUEL :

long-term water-use efficiency

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Crop Stress Biology for Arid Areas, College of Horticulture, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, 712100, China

    X. P. Sun, H. L. Yan, X. Y. Kang & F. W. Ma

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  1. X. P. Sun
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  2. H. L. Yan
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  3. X. Y. Kang
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  4. F. W. Ma
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Correspondence to F. W. Ma.

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Acknowledgements: This work was supported by the earmarked fund for the China Agriculture Research System. The authors are grateful to Mr. Xuanchang Fu and Zhengwei Ma for management of the potted apple trees.

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Sun, X.P., Yan, H.L., Kang, X.Y. et al. Growth, gas exchange, and water-use efficiency response of two young apple cultivars to drought stress in two scion-one rootstock grafting system. Photosynthetica 51, 404–410 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11099-013-0040-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11099-013-0040-3

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