Anatomical physiological and biochemical processes involved in grapevine rootstock drought tolerance

Abstract

In order to explore the drought resistance mechanism of grape rootstocks, two grape rootstock species, '1103P' (a drought-tolerant rootstock) and '101-14M' (drought-sensitive), were treated with moderate water deficit (field capacity of 45-50 %). Throughout the experimental period, the leaves of '1103P' showed a higher stomatal conductance (gs), relative water content and photosynthetic rate (Pn) than '101-14M', indicating '1103P' was more resistant to tolerant than '101-14M'. We propose that '1103P' could prevent water loss from leaves under drought conditions based on the discoveries that '1103P' had higher leaf phytohormone abscisic acid (ABA) content and leaf cuticular wax content, and smaller stomata aperture than those of '101-14M'. Additionally, the activities of H2O2-scavenging enzymes in leaves of '1103P' were higher than those of '101-14M' under drought conditions, indicating the lipid peroxidation induced by H2O2 of '1103P' was less serious than that of '101-14M'. Therefore, better water-saving and higher reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging abilities contributed together to stronger drought resistance of '1103P' than '101-14M'.