Journal of Plant Pathology & Microbiology

The use of chlorophyll fluorescence parameters as a drought tolerance indicator on cultivated and wild watermelon under high light and limited soil moisture

2^nd International Conference on Plant Science & Physiology

June 26-27, 2017 Bangkok, Thailand

Malambane Goitseone, Hisashi Tsujimoto and Kinya Akashi

Tottori University, Japan

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Plant Pathol Microbiol

Abstract:

Chlorophyll fluorescence has become increasingly important in evaluating crops for stress resistance. In this study, we investigated the effects of high light and low moisture content on physiological responses of cultivated (Cv) and wild (Ww) species of watermelon. The two species showed different CO2 assimilation responses in both the control and stressed conditions. The CO2 assimilation in Cv under control conditions was lower than that of Ww whereas under stress condition the assimilation of Ww dropped rapidly as compared to that of Cv. The photochemical efficiency of PSII (Fv/Fm) and quantum yield of PSII (PSII) showed a significant difference among the two species. Under the stress conditions the Ww showed a significant reduction as compared to the Cv for both the parameters. Observations on the photochemical fluorescence quenching (qP) and non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) showed varying tendencies with Ww NPQs showing a steady increase under stress conditions while that of Cv showed very insignificant difference under control and stressed conditions. The qP for both samples under stress conditions were non-significant with the progress of stress days. The A/Ci curves showed a major decrease for the Ww while those of Cv did not show much change as the stress days progressed; this can be associated with stomata response of the two species. The Ww stomatas openings decrease to almost non opening during the day as the stress days increased, while those of Cv only reduced their opening a little even at critical soil moisture conditions. Therefore the chlorophyll fluorescence indicators showed reliability to be used in screening for drought tolerant species and evaluating the photosynthetic performance under high light and limited moisture conditions.

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