Dissection of Drought Tolerance in Upland Cotton Through Morpho-Physiological and Biochemical Traits at Seedling Stage

• DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2021.627107
• Publication Date: 2021-03-12T06:30:12Z
• Authors: Zobia Zahid; Muhammad Kashif R...; Amjad Hameed; Muhammad Akhtar; Allah Ditta; Hafiz Mumtaz Hassan; Ghulam Farid
• Keywords: Drought Tolerance; Stomatal Conductance; Water Use Efficiency

Cotton is an important fiber and cash crop. Extreme water scarceness affects the growth, quality, productivity of cotton. Water shortage has threatened future scenario for cotton growers, so it imperative to devise a solution this problem. In research, we have tried machinate it. 23 genotypes been screened out against drought tolerance at seedling stage by evaluating morphological, physiological, biochemical traits in triplicate completely randomized design plot experiment with two regimes [50 100% field capacity]. Genotypic differences all morphological physiological revealed highly significant except transpiration rate (TR). Moreover, interaction between genotype regime (G × W) was root length (RL, 5.163), shoot (SL, 11.751), excised leaf loss (ELWL, 0.041), stomatal conductance (SC, 7.406). A positively strong correlation found TR relative content (RWC; 0.510) SC (0.584) RWC photosynthesis (0.452) under conditions. negative SL (-0.428) (-0.446). Traits like RL, SL, SC, photosynthesis, proline, catalase, malondialdehyde were visible indicators, which can differentiate drought-tolerant from susceptible ones. wide range diversity morpho-physiological cumulative variance four principal components (PCs) 83.09% three PCs 73.41% normal water-stressed conditions, respectively, as per component analysis. Hence, selection criteria be established on aforementioned development cultivars. that experimental varieties, NIAB-135, NIAB-512, CIM-554 could used breeding strategies improving