Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-23T23:28:23.507Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Drought tolerance assessment of African cowpea accessions based on stomatal behaviour and cell membrane stability

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 September 2008

M. T. LABUSCHAGNE ,
R. VERHOEVEN  and
M. NKOUANESSI
M. T. LABUSCHAGNE*
Affiliation:
University of the Free State, Plant Sciences, P.O. Box 339, Bloemfontein 9300, South Africa
R. VERHOEVEN
Affiliation:
University of the Free State, Plant Sciences, P.O. Box 339, Bloemfontein 9300, South Africa
M. NKOUANESSI
Affiliation:
University of the Free State, Plant Sciences, P.O. Box 339, Bloemfontein 9300, South Africa
*
*To whom all correspondence should be addressed. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

In Sub-Saharan Africa, cowpea is well known for its ability to survive under conditions of water stress and it plays an important role in regions where drought is the factor most limiting to crop yield. In the present study, the drought tolerance levels of 20 African cowpea accessions from three countries were evaluated. A number of the genotypes showed drought tolerance, the merits of stomatal behaviour and cell membrane stability to assess drought tolerance was demonstrated. Damage to the cell membranes caused by drought was less in tolerant accessions. Stomatal opening was also better regulated; the opening was smaller under drought conditions, thus reducing transpiration (T). The wide range of drought tolerance observed among the accessions suggests the possibility of breeding drought-tolerant cultivars in cowpea. Drought-tolerant accessions included Bafoussam 1, M.66, Bafoussam 3, Hluhluwa, Bafoussam 4, Balen, Makueni, Bafoussam 2 and Okhalweni and these could be recommended to breeders as valuable material for drought tolerance improvement in cowpea.

Type
Crops and Soils
Information
The Journal of Agricultural Science , Volume 146 , Issue 6 , December 2008 , pp. 689 - 694
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Anselmo, B. A., Ganga, Z. N., Badol, E. O., Heimer, Y. M. & Nejidat, A. (1998). Screening sweet potato for drought tolerance in the Philippine highlands and genetic diversity among selected genotypes. Tropical Agriculture 75, 189–196.Google Scholar
Bandurska, H. (2000). Does proline accumulated in leaves of water stressed barley plants confine cell membrane injury? I: Free proline accumulation and membrane injury index in drought and osmotically stressed plants. Acta Physiologiae Plantarum 22, 409–415.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dadson, R. B., Hashem, F. M., Javaid, I., Joshi, J., Allen, A. L. & Devine, T. E. (2005). Effect of water stress on the yield of cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp.) genotypes in the Delmarva region of the United States. Journal of Agronomy and Crop Science 191, 210–217.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DaMatta, F. M. (2004). Exploring drought tolerance in coffee: a physiological approach with some insights for plant breeding. Brazilian Journal of Plant Physiology 16, 1–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diallo, A. T., Samb, P. I. & Roy-Macauley, H. (2002). Water status and stomatal behaviour of cowpea, Vigna unguiculata (L.) Walp., plants inoculated with two Glomus species at low soil moisture levels. European Journal of Soil Biology 37, 187–196.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hintze, J. L. (1998). NCSS 2000 User's Guide-III. Kaysville, UT: Number Cruncher Statistical Systems.Google Scholar
IBPGR (1983). Cowpea Descriptors. Rome, Italy: IBPGR Secretariat.Google Scholar
Maroco, J. P., Pereira, J. S. & Chaves, M. M. (1997). Stomatal responses to leaf-to-air vapour pressure deficit in Sahelian species. Australian Journal of Plant Physiology 24, 381–387.Google Scholar
Osondu, P. O. (1997). Advances in cowpea research. Biotechnology and Development Monitor 33, 1012.Google Scholar
Stanca, A. M. (1987). Biochemical and physiological response to heat and water stress in barley. In Drought Tolerance in Winter Cereals (Eds Srivastava, J. P., Porceddu, E., Acevedo, E. & Varma, S.), pp. 84–91. New York: John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
Sulc, R. M., Albrecht, K. A. & Duke, S. H. (1991). Leakage of intracellular substances as an indicator of freezing injury in alfalfa. Crop Science 31, 430–435.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sullivan, C. Y. (1972). Mechanisms of heat and drought resistance in sorghum and methods of measurement. In Sorghum in the Seventies (Eds Rao, N. G. P. & House, L. R.), pp. 247–264. New Delhi: Oxford and India Book House.Google Scholar
Sun, W., Yang, Q., Zhang, J., Zhang, T. & Yun, Z. (1999). Assessment on Drought Tolerance of Eruca sativa Genotypes from Northwestern China. Beijing, China: China Agricultural Press.Google Scholar
Torres-Franklin, M.-L., Gigon, A., De Melo, D. F., Zuily-Fodil, Y. & Pham-Thi, A.-T. (2007). Drought stress and rehydration affect the balance between MGDG and DGDG synthesis in cowpea leaves. Physiologia Plantarum 131, 201–210.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van Rensburg, L., Kruger, G. H. J. & Kruger, H. (1993). Proline accumulation as drought-tolerance selection criterion: relationship to membrane integrity and chloroplast ultrastructure in Nicotiana tabacum L. Journal of Plant Physiology 141, 188–194.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Venkateswarlu, B. & Ramesh, K. (1993). Cell membrane stability and biochemical response of cultured cells of groundnut under polyethylene glycol-induced water stress. Plant Science 90, 179–185.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Watanabe, I., Hakoyama, S., Terao, T. & Singh, B. B. (1997). Evaluation methods for drought tolerance of cowpea. In Advances in Cowpea Research (Eds Singh, B. B., Mohan Raj, D. R., Dashiell, K. E. & Jackai, L. E. N.), pp. 141–146. Co-publication of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and Japan International Research Center for Agricultural Sciences (JIRCAS). Ibadan, Nigeria: IITA.Google Scholar
White, D. A., Turner, N. C. & Galbraith, J. H. (2000). Leaf water relations and stomatal behavior of four allopatric Eucalyptus species planted in Mediterranean southwestern Australia. Tree Physiology 20, 1157–1165.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Xiong, L., Schumaker, K. S. & Zhu, J. K. (2002). Cell signaling during cold, drought, and salt stress. Plant Cell 14 (Suppl.), S165–S183.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed