Class Presentation

on

Environmental Stress and its types, Soil Parameters including soil

pH, Classification of vegetables based on stress tolerance, Use of
rootstock and Wild relatives

Submitted to: Dr Ramesh Kumar (Principal Scientist)

Speaker : Aditika
(Ph.D Scholar)
 Environmental Stress
• Unfavorable environmental conditions can produce a stress on plants
resulting in lower yields. The growth and development of plants is
dependent on abiotic (physical) and biotic (biological) factors.

• Each plant has certain environmental requirements.

• Deviations from the physiological normal type are regarded as

reactions to suboptimal or damaging quantities or intensities of
environmental factors, i.e. situations for which we use the term stress.

• Thus stress and reactions caused by it (stress reactions) can be used as

a measure of the strength of the stress on a scale of intensity, ranging
from deficiency to excessive supply.

• Environmental factors deviating from the optimal intensity or quantity

for the plant are called stress factors.
• If the dosage is inappropriate, stress is caused,
as is obvious with the effects of the following
factors:
•light (weak light, strong light),
•temperature (cold, heat),
•water (drought, flooding),
•nutrients (lack of ions, over-fertilisation, salt stress),
•carbon dioxide and oxygen

• Optimal intensities and concentrations of

these may also differ not only for individual
organisms, but also for particular organs of
the same organism.
 Air
Temperataure

Soil
Tempertature
Temperature
Chilling Injury

Heat stress

Light Quantity
Abiotic
Light Light Intensity

Light Duration

Environmental Factors Water Logging

Causing Stress Water

Drought
Wind

Soil Fertility
Status

Infection

Herbivory
Biotic
Compitition
 Temperature
Air Temperature
 For most crops the optimum functional efficiency occurs mostly between 55 and
75oF (12 and 240C).

 vegetables can be classified according to the temperature requirements of their

optimum air temperature range.

 Temperature requirements are usually based on night temperature.

 Those that grow and develop below 650F (180C) are the cool season crops, and
those that perform above 650F are the warm season crops.
The extremes range of temperature may be considered killing
frosts at about 320F (00C) and death by heat and desiccation at
about 1050F (400C).

 Crops that originated in temperate climates usually require low temperature,

while those that originate in the tropical climates require warm temperature.
Soil Temperature
• Soil temperature has direct dramatic effects on microbial growth and
development, organic matter decay, seed germination, root development, and
water and nutrient absorption by roots.
• In general, the higher the temperature the faster these processes occur.
• The size, quality, and shape of storage organs are greatly affected by soil
temperature.
• Dark-colored soils absorb more solar energy than light colored soils.

Chilling Injury
• Tropical or subtropical plants may be killed or damaged at temperatures above
freezing but below 50ºF (10ºC).
• This latter type of injury is called chilling injury.
• Susceptibility to cold damage varies with different species and there may be
differences among varieties of the same species.
• The susceptibility to cold damage varies with stage of plant development.
Plants tend to be more sensitive to cold temperatures shortly before flowering
through a few weeks after anthesis.
 Heat Stress
• In tomatoes, fruits exposed on vines to high temperatures and high solar radiation can

reach (49-520C). If green fruits are exposed at these temperatures for an hour or more,

they become sunburned; and ripe fruits become scalded.

• Transpiration from the leaf stomata helps cool leaves. It has been calculated that

transpiration can reduce heating by about 15 to 25%.

When temperatures rise too high, heat destruction of the protoplast results in
cell death. This occurs in the range of 113-1220F (45-550C).

• Symptoms of heat injury are the appearance of dead areas in leaves of hypocotyls and

young leaves of many plants. Heat injury occurs over a wide range of plants depending on

the species or tissue.

 Light
Light Quality
• Sunlight is often referred to as white light and is composed of all colors of light. A color of light
would be the relative distribution of wavelengths from a radiation or reflective source.

Light Intensity
• Light intensity is a major factor governing the rate of photosynthesis.

• Crops such as corn, cucurbits, legumes, potato, and sweet potato require a relatively high level of
light for proper plant growth while onions, asparagus, carrot, celery, cole crops, lettuce and
spinach can grow satisfactorily with lower light intensity.

Light Duration
• Some plants change their growth in response to daylength and exhibit photoperiodism.

• Short day plants flower rapidly when the days get shorter (11-12hrs sun light) and long-day plants
(>14 hrs light duration) flower fast when days get longer.

• Plants that are not affected by daylength are called day-neutral plants. These plants can flower
under any light period.
 Water
Waterlogging
• Under waterlogged conditions, all pores in the soil or soilless mixture
are filled with water; so the oxygen supply is almost completely
deprived.

• As a result, plant roots cannot obtain oxygen for respiration to

maintain their activities for nutrient and water uptake.

• Waterlogging causes death of root hairs, reduces absorption of

nutrients and water, increases formation of compounds toxic to plant
growth, and finally retards growth of the plant.
Drought
• Drought is defined as a period without significant rainfall or moisture.

• Droughts may lead to plant water stress and growth may be impacted.
Periods of even short drought stress can reduce crop growth and
yields.
Wind:
• A slight wind is necessary to replenish carbon dioxide (CO2) near the plant
leaf surface.
• CO2 can be rapidly depleted at the leaf surface, unless there is some
ventilation or air infiltration of the greenhouse.
• Air movement and distribution within the greenhouse can be enhanced
with horizontal airflow fans.

Soil Fertility status:

• The root zone is the main source of nutrients for plants, which are
incorporated by the roots.
• Plant macronutrients that must be provided include nitrogen (N),
phosphorus (P), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), and sulfur
(S).
• Plant micronutrients include iron (Fe), copper (Cu), manganese (Mn), zinc
(Zn), boron (B), cobalt (Co), molybdenum (Mo), and chlorine (Cl).
• Excessive amounts can cause toxicity and insufficient amounts can cause
poor or abnormal growth.
• Salt stress is one of the prime factor affecting
crop production in the arid and semi-arid areas
across the globe.
• The salt affected soil is categorized as :
Saline
Saline-sodic
Alkali or Sodic
Vegetable crops based on susceptibility and tolerance to extreme
temperature conditions
The approximate temperatures for best growth and quality of
some vegetable crops
Chilling Injury
 Drought
• Drought stress, particularly at critical growth period may
drastically reduce productivity and quality of vegetables.
• Most vegetables are rather shallow rooted and even short
periods of two to three days of stress can hurt marketable yield
Critical Stages of Water Requirement
 Salinity tolerance
Like other crops, considerable crop to crop
variation in vegetable crop salinity tolerance has
been reported (Maas, 1990).
Highly sensitive Moderately sensitive Moderately tolerant
Okra Broccoli Red beet
Pea Cabbage Spinach
Onion Cauliflower Palak
Carrot Tomato
Eggplant
Potato
Turnip
Pumpkin
Cucumber
 Physical properties of soil

• Physical properties (mechanical behaviour) of a soil greatly

influence its use and behaviour towards plant growth.
• The physical properties of a soil depend on the amount, size,
shape, arrangement and mineral composition of its particles.

• Important physical properties of soils are: Soil texture,

Soil structure, Surface area, Soil density, Soil porosity, Soil
colour and Soil consistence.

• Soil texture refers to the relative proportion of particles or it

is the relative percentage by weight of the three soil separates
viz., sand, silt and clay or simply refers to the size of soil
particles.
 pH
• Soil pH is the single most important chemical
property of the soil (like soil texture is to the
physical properties).

• Knowing the pH of the soil will quickly allow you

to determine if the soil is suitable for plant growth
and what nutrients will be most limiting.

• pH is the negative log of the hydrogen ion(H+)

concentration in the soil water solution.

• The pH scale is how we measure acidity and

alkalinity of solutions.
• The pH scale is how we measure acidity and alkalinity of solutions.
• At neutral (pH =7) the number of H+ = OH-

• pH = - log [ H+]
 Acidic Soil

A soil is said to be acidic when pH is less than 7.

Soil Type pH
Extremely acidic <4.5
Very strongly acidic 4.5-5.0
Strongly acidic 5.1-5.5
Moderately acidic 5.6-6.0
Slightly acidic 6.1-6.5
Neutral 6.6-7.5
 Acidity in the soil is caused due to
• Adsorbed H+, Fe3+ and Al3+ as well
as solution H+, Fe3+ and Al3+ ,
Hydrolyses of Fe3+ and Al3+
produces H+.

• Leaching of basic cations such as

Ca, Mg, K and Na from the soil by
heavy rainfall leaving acidic cations
to remain in the soil.

• This is the reason for the occurance

of acidic soils in humid regions and
alkaline or neutral soils in arid
regions.

• Oxidation of NH+4 and S2 in soils

by microorganisms.
 Salt Affected Soils
• Salt affected soil cause a number of other
stresses leading to reduced productivity in
sensitive crops.

Characteristics Saline soil Saline-Sodic Soil Alkali/sodic soil

pH <8.5 >8.5 8.5-10.0

Electrical >4 dSm-1 >4 dSm-1 <4 dSm-1

Conductivity
Exchangeable Sodium <15% >15% >15%

Soil Structure Stable Unstable Unstable

 Saline soils
• These are soils having excess soluble salts in
the soil, that would impair with normal plant
growth.
• The salt content is normally measured by the
specific conductivity of soil extract.
• Saline soils generally occur in arid and
semiarid regions.
• These soils can be reclaimed by leaching the
salts using good water and removing the
leached salts by drains.
 Problems associated with Saline Soils

Low moisture availability to plant

• Osmotic potential of soil solution> osmotic
potential of cell sap
• Exosmosis in dry season.
Reduced plant growth
• Seeds fails to germinate
• High seedling death rate
• Stunted growth
• Characteristic bluish green foliage
 Sodic Soils
• These are soils high in pH and exchangeable Na% pH is
generally higher than 8.5 and exchangeable Na occupies
more than 15% .

• The poor drainage of these soils is not suitable for many

upland crops but advantageous for aquaculture.

• The high Na content may affect the growth of

phytoplankton and zooplankton .

• These soils generally occur in arid and semi arid regions.

• They are reclaimed by treating the soil with gypsum

(CaSO4) or sulphur.
 Problems associated with Sodic Soils

Osmotic stress: main effect of high salt concentration

• Semi permeable membrane of plants allow water to
pass but rejects most of the salts.
• It become difficult to root to extact water from soil
solution.
• Under osmotic stress, plant continue to divide but do
not elongate.
• More number of cell per unit area.
• Bluish green appearance
Toxic effects of ions
• Cl, SO4, CO32-, Na, Mg and B
 Grafting
• A special method of adapting plants to counteract
environmental stresses is by grafting elite, commercial
cultivars onto selected vigorous rootstocks (Lee and Oda,
2003).
• Grafting is nowadays regarded as a rapid alternative tool
to the relatively slow breeding methodology aimed at
increasing environmental-stress tolerance of fruit
vegetables (Flores et al., 2010).
• Grafting is not associated with the input of agrochemicals
to the crops and is therefore considered to be an
environment-friendly operation of substantial and
sustainable relevance to integrated and organic crop
management systems (Rivard and Louws, 2008).
• Nowadays, grafting is used to reduce infections
by soil-borne pathogens and to enhance the
tolerance against abiotic stresses.

• Among those are saline soils (Colla et al., 2010),

soil-pH (alkalinity) stress, nutrient deficiency,
and toxicity of heavy metals (Savvas et al.,
2010).

• Other abiotic conditions for the application of

rootstocks are thermal stress, drought and
flooding, and persistent organic pollutants.
 Rootstock
• Various rootstocks have been screened from the existing cultivars for
use in each crop.

• Cucurbit species and number of registered rootstock cultivars are

rapidly increasing mostly due to the increased cultivation of grafted
plants under various cultural as well as environmental conditions.

• In general, grafting is more commonly practiced for vegetables grown

under protected environment as compared to those under the field
condition.

• Rootstocks belonging to different species often are preferred where

genetic diversity can be exploited.

• Thus rootstocks of different species are widely used in cucurbits and

solanaceous crops.
Rootstock Scion Performance
S. lycopersicum L Tomato Vigor and virus tolerances
S. lycopersicum L Tobacco Nicotine & alkaloid absorption
affected
S. lycopersicum Tomato High temperature tolerance
S. habrochaites Tomato Resistant to corky root disease
Solanum spp. Tomato Resistant to bacterial wilt &
nematode, Yield increase
S. sodomaeum Tomato Growth & yield reduction
S. auricularum Tomato Growth & yield reduction
S. torvum Tomato Eggplants Disease resistance, no effect on
sugar content
S. toxicarium Lam. Tomato Disease resistance, no effect on
sugar content
S. melongena L Tomato Multiple disease resistance
S. nigrum L Tomato Fruit size and quality control
S. lycopersicum L x S. habrochaites Tomato Low Fusarium infection
S. lycopersicum L x S. habrochaites Tomato Multiple disease resistance

Solanum torvum Eggplant Resistant to nematodes

S. torvum x S. sanitwongsai Eggplant Resistance to bacterial wilt
S.integrifolium x S. melongena L Eggplant High temperature tolerance
 Tolerance to soil-borne diseases
• The vigorous roots of selected rootstock can exhibit excellent
tolerance to serious soil-borne diseases, such as those caused by
Fusarium, Verticillium, Phytophthora, Pseudomonas, Didymella
bryoniae, Monosporascus cannonballus, and nematodes, even
though the degree of tolerance varies considerably with the
rootstocks.

• Even the scion infection of certain virus diseases (TMV races) could
be markedly influenced by virus resistant rootstocks depending upon
the level of resistance in scion and rootstocks.

• The disease tolerance in grafted seedlings may be entirely due to the

tolerance of rootstock roots to such diseases. It is generally
accepted, however, that the disease susceptible characteristics of the
scion are not transported to the rootstock.
 Tolerances to abiotic stresses

Grafts are being used to induce resistance against

a) low and high temperatures
b) to enhance nutrient uptake
c) increase synthesis of endogenous hormones
d) improve water use efficiency
e) reduce uptake of persistent organic pollutants from agricultural
soils
f) improve alkalinity tolerance
g) raise salt and flooding tolerance
h) and limit the negative effect of boron, copper, cadmium, and
manganese toxicity.
 Rootstocks as tool to increase low-temperature
tolerance

• Tomato (cv. Big Red) grafted onto cv. Heman [S. lycopersicum ×L.
hirsutum] and Primavera (S. lycopersicum) produced more fruits
than the control in the greenhouse,(Khah et al., 2006).

• figleaf gourd (Cucurbita ficifolia) and bur cucumber (Sicos

angulatus ) are used as rootstocks.

• Figleaf gourd is unique among cucurbit species with an optimal root

temperature at approximately 150C, thus 6 0C lower than that of
cucumber roots (Tachibana, 1982; Lee, 1994; Ahn et al.,
1999;Rivero et al., 2003c).

• Grafting of a cucumber scion onto a squash rootstock (Cucurbita

moschata) could tolerate suboptimal temperatures
• For tomato, rootstocks of the high-altitude
accession LA 1777 of S. habrochaites, ‘KNVF’
(the interspecific hybrid of S. lycopersicum × S.
habrochaites, able to alleviate low root-
temperature stress for different scions.

• Watermelon, grafting onto an interspecific

squash hybrid, Cucurbita maxima × C.
moschata) rootstocks is used to advance the
planting date during cool periods.
 Rootstocks as tool to increase high-temperature
tolerance

• Since eggplants are better adapted to hot arid climate and

have a better tolerance against optimal soil temperature,
the use of eggplants as rootstocks for tomato at higher
temperature seemed to be more promising (Abadelhafeez
et al., 1975; Abdelmageed and Gruda, 2009).

• Comparing different lines of chilli pepper rootstocks (C.

chacoense, C. baccatum, C. frutescens, C. annuum)
confirmed highest yields under high-temperature
conditions for rootstocks recommended by the AVRDC
(C. annuum cv. Toom-1 and 9852-54; Palada and Wu,
2008).
 Rootstocks as tool to drought tolerance
• Grafted mini-watermelons onto a commercial rootstock
(PS 1313, Cucurbita maxima × Cucurbita moschata)
revealed a more than 60% higher marketable yield
when grown under conditions of deficit irrigation
compared with ungrafted melons (Rouphael et al.,
2008).

• Grafting experiments with ABA deficient mutants of

tomato showed that stomata can close independently of
the leaf water status suggesting that there is a chemical
signal produced by the roots that controls stomatal
conductance (Holbrook et al., 2002).
 Rootstocks as tool to increase flooding
tolerance
• Problems caused by flooding may be solved by growing flood-
tolerant crops or grafting intolerant plants onto tolerant ones.

• For instance, grafting improved flooding tolerance of bitter melon

(Momordia charanthia L. cv. New Known You #3) when grafted
onto luffa (Luffa cylindria Roem cv. Cylinder#2) (Liao and Lin,
1996).

• Adventitious roots and aerenchyma formation were observed in

grafted but not in ungrafted watermelon under flooding. Flooding
occurs also during the heat period in the lowland tropics.

• Here, the AVRDC recommends growing tomatoes on eggplants

‘EG195’ or ‘EG203’ and pepper on chili accessions ‘PP0237-7502’,
‘PP0242-62’ and ‘Lee B’ (AVRDC, 2003, 2009).
 Rootstocks as tool to increase salinity tolerance
• Grafting can alleviate ion toxicity by limiting the transport of Na+ and in some cases
also of Cl− to the shoot while storing these in the roots, which are typical
tissue tolerance mechanisms.

• The growth performance of the eggplant cultivar ‘Suqiqie’ (Solanum

melongena L.) was improved under saline stress conditions when the
Solanum torvum was used as rootstock (Liu et al., 2007; Wei et al., 2007).

• Grafted ‘Crimson Tide’ watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) onto C. maxima and

two Lagenaria siceraria rootstocks resulted in higher growth performance
than ungrafted plants under saline conditions (8.0 dSm−1, Yetisir and
Uygur, 2010).

• The increased salt tolerance of cucumber plants grafted onto C. ficifolia

was found to be linked to the increased superoxide dismutase (SOD)
activity under saline conditions induced by major nutrients (Huang et al.,
2010).
 Wild Relatives
• Cultivated plants have been derived from the wild
relatives through the process of selection followed by
hybridization for bringing desired improvement.

• Wild related species have contributed significantly

towards improvement of crop plants such as paddy,
wheat, potato, brinjal, tomato, sugarcane, etc.

• Wild relatives are economically important for edible,

medicinal and other uses: Allium, Cicer, Citrus, Coix,
Crotalaria, Dioscorea, Piper, Prunus, Rubus,
Saccharum, etc.
The wild relatives have been identified as source of the
following desirable traits in improvement of crop plants

a) Resistance to diseases and pests: paddy, chickpea,

pigeon pea, sesame, brinjal, lady's finger and potato
b) Tolerance to adverse environmental stress (salt
tolerance, heat/ frost, desiccation sensitivity, water
flooding): chickpea, pigeon pea and soybean tomato,
brinjal and cucurbits
c) High vegetative vigour: potato
d) Higher yield: chickpea, mung, urd and lady's finger
e) Morphological traits: wheat, pigeon pea and lady's
finger
f) Higher protein value: oat, pigeon pea and cassava
g) Higher oil content: coconut and oil palm
Use of wild relatives to mitigate abiotic and biotic stress
crop Wild relatives Important traits
Allium Spp. A. roylei Resistant to powdery mildew
A. vavilovii and leaf blight
Abelmoschus esculentus A. mannihot Resistance to YVMV
A. tuberculatus
Lycopersicum esculantum L. cheesmanni Heat tolerance
L. pimpinellifolium Heat and drought tolerant
resisitance to fusarium wilt, grey
leaf spot and buck eye fruit rot
L. hirsutum Resistant source for powder midew
and tomato yellow leaf curl as well
as cold tolerance
L. peruvianum RKN
Solanum melongena S. macrocarpon Tolerant to drought
S. gilo
S. sisymbrifolium Resisitant to fruit and shoot borer,
bacterial wilt.
Solanum tuberosum S. tarijense Resistant to aphids, mites,thrips
 For utilization of wild relatives

Identification of wild genepool of the crop,

Availability of sufficient material for screening

and evaluation,

Appropriate method for gene transfer.