Effects of Priming and Drought in the Andean Desert Wild Potato Solanum kurtzianum

JEREZ, D. N.; GONZALEZ, C. V.; KOZUB, P. C.; IBAÑEZ, V. N.; BERLI, F.; MARFIL, C. F.

Potato Research

Springer Nature

Año: 2024

0014-3065

Priming is a phenomenon that has received special interest in recent years to betterunderstand plant acclimation to environmental cues and its potential use in improvingthe drought response in susceptible crops. Crop wild relatives (CWR) play a rolein natural ecosystems, are part of agrobiodiversity, and represent essential geneticresources for crop breeding. Although priming to drought has been demonstrated inthe cultivated potato (Solanum tuberosum), it has been overlooked in potato CWR.Solanum kurtzianum is an Argentinian wild potato species adapted to arid conditionsand represents a promissory model to study drought memory. The aim of the studywas to evaluate the priming effect in two genotypes of S. kurtzianum of contrastingdrought tolerance (G1 and G2). We obtained plants from tubers of a previous experiment,where plants were subjected to well-watered (non-primed) and moderatewater-deficit (primed) conditions. Primed and non-primed plants were then grownunder three irrigation treatments: i) well watered (WW), ii) moderate water deficit(MWD), and iii) severe water deficit (SWD). Morphological, physiological, biochemical,and yield traits were evaluated. Both genotypes presented higher biomasswhen they were exposed to a previous water deficit. G1 primed plants showed majorabove-ground biomass in MWD, whereas G2 primed plants showed major stolonbiomass in SWD. According to drought tolerance indices, primed plants were moretolerant to water deficit than the non-primed ones. These results suggest that thereare different priming effects to drought that would favour sexual or asexual modes ofreproduction in the Andean desert potato S. kurtzianum.