Drought and salinity are the two most common and frequently co-occurring abiotic stresses limiting plant productivity worldwide.
Fargesia rufa
Researchers from Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden (XTBG) and Chengdu Institute of Biology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences conducted a study to determine whether F. rufa possesses efficient mechanisms to protect against photochemical damage and oxidative stress induced by drought and salinity.
They further studied, if so, whether the same processes are invoked under different stress conditions.
The researchers investigated leaf ultrastructure, photosynthesis, light-energy partitioning, antioxidative capacity and lipid peroxidation in F. rufa plants subjected to isolated and combined drought and salinity treatments.
F. rufa
Furthermore, an increase in intercellular CO2 concentration accompanied by stomatal conductance was observed under all stresses.
Drought was less damaging because the plants had higher thermal dissipation and the water-water cycle capacities, exhibited increases in the activities of superoxide dismutase / ascorbate - glutathione cycle enzymes, and maintained a favorable redox balance of ascorbate and glutathione
They also found that F. rufa
The results indicated that photosynthetic inhibition can largely be attributed to both diffusive resistance and metabolic impairment.
The study entitled “Photoprotective and antioxidative mechanisms against oxidative damage in Fargesia rufa subjected to drought and salinity” has been published in Functional Plant Biology.
Fargesia rufa
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