Heat waves and drought periods are set to happen more often due to a changing climate, especially in Africa. The African eggplant, L., is a highly nutritious vegetable crop indigenous to Africa commonly grown by small-holder farmers. It is adapted to harsh environments but empirical data on its tolerance to high temperatures and drought individually or in combination to help farmers is lacking. This project aimed to describe the effects of drought in combination with heat waves on the leafy African eggplant Shum E11 genotype over 26 days of stress. Four-week-old plants were subjected to repetitive heatwave-type stress consisting of eight days of day/night temperatures reaching 32/26 °C or 37/31 °C compared to 27/21 °C, followed by four days of recovery, repeated twice. A drought treatment was applied during the experiment by maintaining the soil water potential at − 100 kPa compared with − 10 kPa for non-stressed plants. Drought stress had a predominant effect over heat by reducing leaf production and leaf membrane stability and increasing chlorophyll content. Antioxidants and phenols were unaffected by drought or heat stress while mineral elements were impacted differently by each stress and their combination. These results indicate a good tolerance of the E11 genotype to heat stress during the vegetative stage while drought negatively affected plant growth and leaf biochemical compounds. Further research on later developmental stages will complete our understanding of this variety's tolerance to heat and drought and its potential role in fields affected by environmental stresses.

中文翻译：

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干旱和热浪对非洲茄子的影响在组合出现时与单独出现时有所不同

由于气候变化，热浪和干旱期将会更频繁地发生，尤其是在非洲。非洲茄子 (L.) 是一种原产于非洲的高营养蔬菜作物，通常由小农种植。它适应恶劣的环境，但缺乏其对高温和干旱单独或组合的耐受性的经验数据，以帮助农民。该项目旨在描述干旱和热浪在 26 天的胁迫下对非洲叶茄子 Shum E11 基因型的影响。四周大的植物受到重复的热浪型胁迫，包括八天的昼/夜温度达到 32/26 °C 或 37/31 °C（与 27/21 °C 相比），然后是四天的恢复，重复两次。实验过程中进行了干旱处理，将土壤水势维持在 − 100 kPa，而非胁迫植物的水势为 − 10 kPa。干旱胁迫通过降低叶片产量和叶膜稳定性以及增加叶绿素含量而对热量产生显着影响。抗氧化剂和酚类不受干旱或热应激的影响，而矿物质元素则受到每种应激及其组合的不同影响。这些结果表明，E11 基因型在营养阶段对热应激具有良好的耐受性，而干旱对植物生长和叶片生化化合物产生负面影响。对后期发育阶段的进一步研究将完善我们对该品种对炎热和干旱的耐受性及其在受环境胁迫影响的田地中的潜在作用的理解。