Effect of Soil Drought Stress on Selected Biochemical Parameters and Yield of Oat × Maize Addition (OMA) Lines

Abstract

Plant growth and the process of yield formation in crops are moderated by surrounding conditions, as well as the interaction of the genetic background of plants and the environment. In the last two decades, significant climatic changes have been observed, generating unfavorable and harmful impacts on plant development. Drought stress can be considered one of the most dangerous environmental factors affecting the life cycle of plants, reducing biomass production and, finally, the yield. Plants can respond to water deficit in a wide range, which depends on the species, genetic variability within the species, the plant's ontogenesis stage, the intensity of the stress, and other potential stress factors. In plants, it is possible to observe hybrids between different taxa that certain traits adopted to tolerate stress conditions better than the parent plants. Oat × maize addition (OMA) plants are good examples of hybrids generated via wide crossing. They can exhibit morphological, physiological, and biochemical variations implemented by the occurrence of extra chromosomes of maize, as well as the interaction of maize and oat chromatin. The initial goal of the study was to identify OMA lines among plants produced by wide crossing with maize. The main goal was to investigate differences in OMA lines according to the Excised Leaf Water Loss (ELWL) test and to identify specific biochemical changes and agronomic traits under optimal water conditions and soil drought. Additionally, detection of any potential alterations that are stable in F2 and F3 generations. The aforementioned outcomes were the basis for the selection of OMA lines that tolerate growth in an environment with limited water availability. The molecular analysis indicated 12.5% OMA lines among all tested descendants of wide oat-maize crossing. The OMA lines significantly differ according to ELWL test results, which implies some anatomical and physiological adaptation to water loss from tissues. On the first day of drought, plants possessed 34% more soluble sugars compared to control plants. On the fourteen day of drought, the amount of soluble sugars was reduced by 41.2%. A significant increase of phenolic compounds was observed in the fourteen day of drought, an average of 6%, even up to 57% in line 9. Soil drought substantially reduced stem biomass, grains number, and mass per plant. Lower water loss revealed by results of the ELWL test correlated with the high yield of OMA lines. Phenolic compound content might be used as a biochemical indicator of plant drought tolerance since there was a significant correlation with the high yield of plants subjected to soil drought.

Keywords: Grande I; OMA; agronomic traits; drought stress; maize; oat; phenolic compounds; soluble sugars.

Figure 1

Electrophoretic separation of PCR products generated with Grande 1 primers application (M—100 bp marker, W—maize cv. Waza, S—oat cv. Stoper, 35—OMA line, 36–41—oat DH lines, 42–43—OMA lines, 44–51—oat DH lines).

Figure 2

A heatmap showing correlation coefficients between all pairs of observed traits in control. [t[1]—ELWL after 0–3 h, t[2]—ELWL after 4–6 h, t[3]—ELWL after 0–6 h, t[4]—soluble sugar content in first day of drought (20% of soil field capacity), t[5]—phenolic compounds content in first day of drought (20% of soil field capacity), after two weeks of drought (maintaining 20% of soil field capacity), t[6]—soluble sugars content after two weeks of drought (maintaining 20% of soil field capacity), t[7]—phenolic compounds content after two weeks of drought (maintaining 20% of soil field capacity), t[8]—the mass of stems plant⁻¹, t[9]—the number of grains, t[10]—the mass of grains plant⁻¹]. * p < 0.05; *** p < 0.001.

Figure 3

A heatmap showing correlation coefficients between all pairs of observed traits in drought stress. [t[4]—soluble sugars content on first day of drought (20% of soil field capacity), t[5]—phenolic compounds content on first day of drought (20% of soil field capacity), after two weeks of drought (maintaining 20% of soil field capacity), t[6]—soluble sugars content after two weeks of drought (maintaining 20% of soil field capacity), t[7]—phenolic compounds content after two weeks of drought (maintaining 20% of soil field capacity), t[8]—the mass of stems plant−1, t[9]—the number of grains, t[10]—the mass of grains plant⁻¹]. * p < 0.05; *** p < 0.001.

Figure 4

Distribution of fourteen OMA lines in F2 and F3 generations and cultivar Bingo in the space of the first two principal components (PC₁ = 65.34%, PC₂ = 25.16%) for control.

Figure 5

Distribution of fourteen OMA lines in F2 and F3 generations and cultivar Bingo in the space of the first two principal components (PC₁ = 57.10%, PC₂ = 36.94%) for drought stress.

Figure 6

Chosen oat × maize addition lines (OMA) and cv. Bingo: (A)—grown in the greenhouse before drought treatment; control plants (left) and plants after drought treatment (right): (B)—cv. Bingo; (C)—OMA line 1b; (D)—OMA line 9; (E)—OMA line 26; (F)—OMA line 35; (G)—OMA line 43; (H)—OMA line 83.