SURVIVAL OF ADVENTITIOUS ROOTS IS NECESSARY FOR TOMATO PLANT RECOVERY FROM FLOODING STRESS

VIDOZ, M.L.; MORINIGO, S.; MIGNOLLI, F.

Córdoba

Congreso; XXXII Reunión Argentina de Fisiología Vegetal; 2018

Climate change has brought about extreme weather events such as heavy rains, which frequently result in flooding and agricultural losses. Tomato plants display morphological and physiological adjustments which allow them to acclimatize to the hypoxic environment resulting from flooding events. However, tomato plant behaviour during the recovery phase has so far received little attention. In order to assess tomato plant ability to fully tolerate flooding stress, we have studied plant fitness to regain biomass accumulation and stomatal conductance. Flooding treatments lasted 10 days and plants were allowed to recover for 15 days. Although biomass accumulation was lower in stressed plants compared to control ones, the daily growth rate during the recovery period was higher in plants coming from flooding than in control plants. In addition, leaf area was similar in control and recovering plants. Keeping adventitious roots alive by hilling resulted in plants that regained stomatal conductance after only one day of recovery and showed lower formation of hydrogen peroxide respect to plants in which adventitious roots were left in the air. Moreover, considering biomass allocation to leaves and roots, hilled plants strategy to recover seems to be based on increasing radiation interception to sustain active adventitious root growth.