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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Plant Abiotic Stress
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1442618
This article is part of the Research Topic Plant Ecophysiology: Responses to Climate Changes and Stress Conditions View all 6 articles

Evaluation of growth, physiological response, and drought resistance of different flue-cured tobacco varieties under drought stress

Provisionally accepted
Yi-nan Zhang Yi-nan Zhang 1,2Ye Zhuang Ye Zhuang 3Xiao-guo Wang Xiao-guo Wang 4Xiao-dong Wang Xiao-dong Wang 1,2*
  • 1 Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, Henan Province, China
  • 2 College of Agriculture, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, Henan Province, China
  • 3 Guizhou Tobacco Company Qiandongnan Prefecture Company, Guizhou, China
  • 4 Other, Luoyang, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    In recent years, more severe droughts have occurred frequently in many parts of the world, drought stress is the primary abiotic stress factor restricting the growth and quality of flue-cured tobacco. In order to reduce the negative impact, and to screenidentify suitable varieties for dryland cultivation, four flue-cured tobacco varieties were selected: Qinyan 96 (Q96), Zhongyan 101 (Z101), Yunyan 87 (Y87), and Yunyan 116 (Y116). A pot experiment was conducted with four water supply gradients: sufficient, mild stress, moderate stress, and severe stress. The aim was to analyze differences in agronomic traits, photosynthetic traits, reactive oxygen species (ROS) metabolism, and drought resistance among the varieties under drought stress.The results showed that drought intensification inhibited seedling growth and development across all varieties, with Q96 showing the least decrease and Y116 the greatest. With the increasing degree of drought stress, photosynthetic rates (Pn), transpiration rate (Tr) and stomatal conduction (Gs) have shown gradually decreasing trends, while substomatal cavity CO2 concentration (Ci) showed a growing trend.Severe drought corresponded with lower chlorophyll content and decreased the maximal photochemical efficiency (Fv/Fm), photosystem II (PSII), and photochemical quenching coefficient (qP) in all varieties, while steady-state non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) increased. Increased drought stress led to significantly higher reactive oxygen species (ROS) accumulation in tobacco seedlings. The antioxidant enzyme activities in, Q96, Z101, and Y87 increased under mild drought stress, whereas Y116 showed decreased activity. In conclusion, the drought resistance ranking among the four varieties is as follows: Q96 > Z101 > Y87 > Y116.

    Keywords: Tobacco varieties, drought tolerance, Antioxidant Enzymes, Principal Component Analysis, Comprehensive evaluation

    Received: 02 Jun 2024; Accepted: 30 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Zhang, Zhuang, Wang and Wang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Xiao-dong Wang, College of Agriculture, Henan University of Science and Technology, Luoyang, Henan Province, China

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