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Involvement of abscisic acid and other stress indicators in taro (Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott) response to drought conditions

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Abstract

Taro (Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott) is a staple food and represents an important food security role in most tropical regions. It is, unfortunately, susceptible to prolonged drought conditions. Abscisic acid (ABA) is a well-documented stress-induced phytohormone that tolerant crops usually accumulate in leaves to induce stomatal closure, preventing water loss through inhibition of transpiration. Hitherto, exists very scarce information regarding the ABA role in taro response to drought. Here, we determined the ABA content in the shoots and corms of taro subjected to seven months of water scarcity and linked ABA to other drought resilience traits, including carbon isotopic discrimination (Δ13C), oxalic acid (OA), chlorophyll content index (CCI), water use efficiency (WUE), and biomass (B). The Δ13C-shoot content showed partially open stomata in all accessions, and significant correlation with Δ13C-corm, CCI, and WUE. The osmotically active OA-shoot decrease seemed not to interfere with the stomatal aperture. The tolerant accessions subjected to drought stress had higher B-corm, ABA-shoot, Δ13C-shoot, CCI, OA, and WUE. However, the observed under drought conditions increase of ABA in the shoots, and its decrease in the corms were not significantly correlated, nor with other traits, suggesting that ABA was not the main regulator of taro physiological processes under stress. The information gained should be considered in breeding programs to predict taro’s response to climate change.

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Abbreviations

ABA:

Abscisic acid

Acc:

Accession number

B:

Biomass

CCI:

Chlorophyll content index

δ13C:

Carbon isotope composition

Δ13C:

Carbon isotope discrimination

ELISA:

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay

OA:

Oxalic acid

PCA:

Principal component analysis

SPC:

Pacific community

WUE:

Water use efficiency

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Programa Operacional Madeira 14–20, Portugal 2020 and the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund [Grant number M1420-01-0145-FEDER-000011, CASBio]; and the ARDITI-Agência Regional para o Desenvolvimento da Investigação Tecnologia e Inovação [Grant number M1420-09-5369-FSE-000001]. We thank J. G. R. de Freitas and H. G. M. de Nóbrega from the ISOPlexis Genebank from the Madeira University (Portugal) who significantly contributed to this work, particularly to the field assay supervision and with assistance in the harvest and sample preparation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ISOPlexis Genebank, Faculty of Life Sciences, University of Madeira, Campus da Penteada, 9020-105, Funchal, Madeira, Portugal

    Carla S. S. Gouveia, José F. T. Ganança, Jan J. Slaski & Miguel Â. A. Pinheiro de Carvalho

  2. Ecosystems and Plant Sciences, InnoTech Alberta, Hwy 16A and 75 Street, PO Bag 4000, Vegreville, AB, Canada

    Jan J. Slaski

  3. CIRAD-BIOS, PO Box 946, Port-Vila, Vanuatu

    Vincent Lebot

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  1. Carla S. S. Gouveia
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  2. José F. T. Ganança
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  3. Jan J. Slaski
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  4. Vincent Lebot
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  5. Miguel Â. A. Pinheiro de Carvalho
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Correspondence to Carla S. S. Gouveia.

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Communicated by P. Wojtaszek.

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Gouveia, C.S.S., Ganança, J.F.T., Slaski, J.J. et al. Involvement of abscisic acid and other stress indicators in taro (Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott) response to drought conditions. Acta Physiol Plant 42, 173 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-020-03162-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-020-03162-5

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