TY - JOUR
T1 - Assessment of Drought Tolerance of Miscanthus Genotypes through Dry-Down Treatment and Fixed-Soil-Moisture-Content Techniques
AU - Weng, Tzu-Ya
AU - Nakashima, Taiken
AU - Villanueva-Morales, Antonio
AU - Stewart, J. Ryan
AU - Sacks, Erik J.
AU - Yamada, Toshihiko
N1 - Funding Information:
Funding: This work was funded by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (No. 17H04615 to T.Y.) from the Japanese Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
PY - 2022/1
Y1 - 2022/1
N2 - Miscanthus, a high-yielding, warm-season C4 grass, shows promise as a potential bioenergy crop in temperate regions. However, drought may restrain productivity of most genotypes. In this study, total 29 Miscanthus genotypes of East-Asian origin were screened for drought tolerance with two methods, a dry-down treatment in two locations and a system where soil moisture content (SMC) was maintained at fixed levels using an automatic irrigation system in one location. One genotype, Miscanthus sinensis PMS-285, showed relatively high drought-tolerance capacity under moderate drought stress. Miscanthus sinensis PMS-285, aligned with the M. sinensis ‘Yangtze-Qinling’ genetic cluster, had relatively high principal component analysis ranking values in both two locations experiments, Hokkaido University and Brigham Young University. Genotypes derived from the ‘Yangtze-Qinling’ genetic cluster showed relatively greater photosynthetic performance than other genetic clusters, suggesting germplasm from this group could be a potential source of drought-tolerant plant material. Diploid genotypes showed stronger drought tolerance than tetraploid genotypes, suggesting ploidy could be an influential factor for this trait. Of the two methods, the dry-down treatment appears more suitable for selecting drought-tolerant genotypes given that it reflects water-stress conditions in the field. However, the fixed-SMC experiment may be good for understanding the physiological responses of plants to relatively constant water-stress levels.
AB - Miscanthus, a high-yielding, warm-season C4 grass, shows promise as a potential bioenergy crop in temperate regions. However, drought may restrain productivity of most genotypes. In this study, total 29 Miscanthus genotypes of East-Asian origin were screened for drought tolerance with two methods, a dry-down treatment in two locations and a system where soil moisture content (SMC) was maintained at fixed levels using an automatic irrigation system in one location. One genotype, Miscanthus sinensis PMS-285, showed relatively high drought-tolerance capacity under moderate drought stress. Miscanthus sinensis PMS-285, aligned with the M. sinensis ‘Yangtze-Qinling’ genetic cluster, had relatively high principal component analysis ranking values in both two locations experiments, Hokkaido University and Brigham Young University. Genotypes derived from the ‘Yangtze-Qinling’ genetic cluster showed relatively greater photosynthetic performance than other genetic clusters, suggesting germplasm from this group could be a potential source of drought-tolerant plant material. Diploid genotypes showed stronger drought tolerance than tetraploid genotypes, suggesting ploidy could be an influential factor for this trait. Of the two methods, the dry-down treatment appears more suitable for selecting drought-tolerant genotypes given that it reflects water-stress conditions in the field. However, the fixed-SMC experiment may be good for understanding the physiological responses of plants to relatively constant water-stress levels.
KW - Automated irrigation control
KW - Bioenergy crops
KW - Drought tolerance
KW - Miscanthus spp
KW - Photosynthetic parameters
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85121728750&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85121728750&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/agriculture12010006
DO - 10.3390/agriculture12010006
M3 - Article
SN - 2077-0472
VL - 12
JO - Agriculture (Switzerland)
JF - Agriculture (Switzerland)
IS - 1
M1 - 6
ER -