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Selection for yield over five decades favored anisohydric and phenological adaptations to early-season drought in Australian wheat

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Abstract

Background and Aims

Climate change in the Mediterranean-climate region of Australia is reducing growing season rainfall and delaying first autumn rain or the onset of ‘autumn break’. We tested the hypothesis that selection for yield and agronomic traits has favored adaptation to early season drought in Australian wheat (Triticum aestivum L.).

Methods

Ten wheat varieties released between 1958 and 2012 were grown in a glasshouse. After sowing in dry soil, the equivalent of 25 mm rainfall was supplied, with no subsequent watering provided for 32 days to induce an early season drought treatment (ESD) while a well-watered treatment (WW) was planted on a wet soil that was water-saturated 48 h before sowing. We measured soil and plant water status, gas exchange, shoot and root traits at the end of drought (32 days after sowing) and at anthesis, and grain yield per plant at maturity.

Results

Grain yield increased with year of release at 0.43% yr–1 under well-watered conditions and at 0.35% yr–1 under drought. The improved yield under drought was associated with a shorter time to flowering, and a change from isohydric behavior (maintained Ψleaf, reduced gs, leaf photosynthesis and transpiration rates in response to drought) in older varieties to anisohydric behavior (decreased Ψleaf and increased gs, leaf photosynthesis and transpiration in response to drought) in newer varieties that reduced leaf area and maintained higher gs, and higher photosynthesis per unit leaf area.

Conclusions

Direct selection for yield and agronomic traits between 1958 and 2012 has improved adaptation to early-season drought. Our collection of varieties is an interesting model to probe for variation in drought tolerance.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Mr. Robert Creasy and Mr. Bill Piasini for technical assistance in the glasshouse experiment, and Prof. Neil C Turner for discussion on the data. This research was supported by The University of Western Australia (UWA). The Higher Education Commission of Pakistan and the China Scholarship Council provided financial support to Mr. Faisal Khan and Mr. Yupeng Feng, respectively, for their training visits to UWA.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Haripur, Haripur, 22620, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

    Faisal Khan

  2. The UWA Institute of Agriculture, and School of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, 6001, Australia

    Faisal Khan, Yupeng Feng, Jairo A. Palta, Yinglong Chen & Kadambot H. M. Siddique

  3. College of Agronomy, China Agricultural University, Beijing, 100193, China

    Yupeng Feng

  4. CSIRO Agriculture and Food, Private Bag No. 5, Wembley, WA, 6913, Australia

    Jairo A. Palta

  5. South Australian Research and Development Institute, GPO Box 397, Adelaide, 5001, Australia

    Victor O. Sadras

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  1. Faisal Khan
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  2. Yupeng Feng
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  3. Jairo A. Palta
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Correspondence to Jairo A. Palta.

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Khan, F., Feng, Y., Palta, J.A. et al. Selection for yield over five decades favored anisohydric and phenological adaptations to early-season drought in Australian wheat. Plant Soil 476, 511–526 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11104-022-05543-w

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