Heat tolerance of upland cotton during the fruiting stage evaluated using cellular membrane thermostability
Introduction
Cotton is a summer crop but excessively high temperature impairs its growth and reproduction. In cotton growing districts of the Punjab and Sindh provinces (Pakistan), summers are severe and maximum temperature often exceeds 45 °C. Such high temperatures cause considerable damage to cotton and are a major concern to physiologists and breeders working in stress environments. The temperature regime during the month of August, corresponding to peak flowering, is significantly associated with cotton yield: high temperatures being associated with lower yield and low maximum temperatures with higher yield (Oosterhuis, 1999). Temperature changes may act directly by modifying existing physiological processes, and indirectly by inducing an altered pattern of development after the imposition of temperature change (Downton and Slatyer, 1972). In cotton, for example, the production of successive nodes on the main stem and the time interval between the production of successive flowers on the successive fruiting branches on the main stem and between the first two flowers on the same fruiting branch is temperature dependent (Hesketh et al., 1972).
The traditional view is that the high temperature limit for most plants is determined by irreversible denaturation of enzymes. Although enzymes play a critical role, changes in cell membrane properties due to high temperature stress have recently received considerable attention. High temperature modifies composition and structure of cell membranes by weakening the hydrogen bonds and electrostatic interactions between the polar group of proteins within the aqueous phase of the membrane. Thus, integral membrane proteins (which are associated with both hydrophilic and lipid regions of the membrane) tend to associate more strongly with the lipid phase. Disruption and damage to membranes alters their permeability, and results in loss of solute (electrolytes). The consensus is that electrolyte leakage reflects damage to cellular membranes (McDaniel, 1982) and is therefore an important factor in heat tolerance.
Sullivan (1972) developed a heat tolerance test that determines cellular membrane thermostability (CMT) through measuring the amount of electrolyte leakage from leaf discs bathed in de-ionized water after exposure to heat treatment. Modification to this method has also been proposed for specific crops (Blum and Ebercon, 1981, Tahir and Singh, 1993). Sullivan and Ross (1979) later used this procedure to identify genetic variability for heat tolerance in sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) and related this variability to field performance of several varieties grown under high temperature stress. CMT has been used as a measure of heat tolerance in several other crops, including soybean (Martineau et al., 1979), potato and tomato (Chen et al., 1982), wheat (Saadallah et al., 1990, Blum et al., 2001), cowpea (Ismail and Hall, 1999) and citrus (ZhongHai et al., 1999). Wallner et al. (1982) and Marcum (1999) used CMT to screen turfgrass and Kentucky blue grass, respectively, for heat tolerance.
The objective of the present study was to evaluate CMT as an indicator of heat tolerance in upland cotton and determine its relationship with seed cotton yield (SCY) under heat-stressed and non-stressed conditions.
Section snippets
Location, entries and regimes
The experiments were carried out at Cotton Research Institute, Faisalabad, Pakistan. The experimental material comprised eight upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) cultivars and 15 F1 hybrids (together referred to as entries). Both cultivars and hybrids were included in the experimental material since cultivars and hybrids carry different genotypic organization, cultivars being homozygous and hybrids heterozygous for most of the loci, and therefore, were expected to show differential response
Greenhouse experiment
Cultivars and hybrids were analysed separately. Cultivars as well as hybrids differed significantly (P<0.01) among themselves for the expression of RCI% in the greenhouse (Table 1). The cultivar×temperature regimes and hybrid×temperature regimes interactions were also significant (P<0.01), indicating a differential response of cultivars as well as hybrids across temperature regimes. The correlation coefficient between the RCI values in optimum and supra-optimum regimes was non-significant (r
Discussion
RCI is an indicator of cellular or tissue heat tolerance. Low RCI reflects high CMT and high RCI low CMT. Cotton cultivars as well as hybrids responded differentially for CMT across temperature regimes. Wide temperature variation in the greenhouse regimes resulted in strong cultivar×temperature regime and hybrid×temperature regime interactions. The impact of field regime in modifying CMT was not very strong because of relatively low temperature variation across field regimes as compared to the
Conclusion
It can be concluded that CMT can be useful in discriminating heat-tolerant and susceptible cotton types. However, indirect selection for CMT on the basis of SCY under non-heat-stressed environments should only be implemented with caution. The lack of association between CMT and SCY in the absence of heat stress may be useful for the breeders, as it provides an opportunity for independent selection of the two traits. Efficient utility of CMT in cotton breeding programs, for the purpose of
References (21)
- et al.
Interaction of CO2 enrichment and temperature on cotton growth and leaf characteristics
Environ. Exp. Bot.
(1998) - et al.
High temperature acclimation in pepper leaves
HortScience
(1990) - et al.
Cell membrane stability as a measure of drought and heat tolerance in wheat
Crop Sci.
(1981) - et al.
Wheat cellular thermotolerance is related to yield under heat stress
Euphytica
(2001) - et al.
Crop specific thermal kinetic windows in relation to wheat and cotton biomass production
Agron. J.
(1988) - et al.
Adaptability of crop plants to high temperature stress
Crop Sci.
(1982) - et al.
Temperature dependence of photosynthesis in cotton
Plant Physiol.
(1972) - et al.
Simulation of growth and yield in cotton. II. Environmental control of morphogenesis
Crop Sci.
(1972) - et al.
Reproductive stage heat tolerance, leaf membrane thermostability and plant morphology in cowpea
Crop Sci.
(1999) Cell membrane thermostability and whole plant heat tolerance of Kentucky Bluegrass
Crop Sci.
(1999)
Cited by (112)
Improving thermotolerance in Gossypium hirsutum by using signalling and non-signalling molecules under glass house and field conditions
2021, Industrial Crops and ProductsCitation Excerpt :Therefore, medium temperature stress was selected to observe the fluctuations in physiology and biochemistry of cotton plants. A light period of 14/10 h day and night was provided to cotton crop (Rahman et al., 2004). The effect of different temperature regimes was observed using a medium heat tolerant genotype of cotton (AA-802).
Thermotolerance in plants: Potential physio-biochemical and molecular markers for crop improvement
2021, Environmental and Experimental BotanyCitation Excerpt :Similarly, Hussain et al. (2020) reported that CMT accurately differentiated between heat tolerant and heat sensitive cultivars of wheat. This test has been further employed to assess the heat tolerance of wheat (Dias et al., 2009; Škute and Savicka, 2010), lentil (Sita et al., 2017), mung bean (Kumar et al., 2011; Sharma et al., 2016), alfalfa (Wassie et al., 2019), soybean (Martineau et al., 1979), potato and tomato (Chen et al., 1982), tomato (Hameed et al., 2015), cotton (Ashraf et al., 1994; Rahman et al., 2004; Singh et al., 2018), cowpea (Ismail and Hall, 1999), barley (Wahid and Shabbir, 2005), chickpea (Pareek et al., 2019), and rice (Mohammed and Tarpley, 2010). There are some reports that thermotolerance indicated in the CMT test in the laboratory is also reflected in crops grown under natural fields (Hameed et al., 2015; Saadalla et al., 1990).
Genetic variability in cotton germplasm: Predicting the agro physiological markers for high-temperature tolerance
2021, Journal of Agricultural ScienceComprehensive evaluation and screening identification indexes of heat-resistance indices in cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.)
2024, Journal of Agronomy and Crop ScienceGenetic variability predicting breeding potential of upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) for high temperature tolerance
2023, Journal of Cotton ResearchSalicylic acid-mediated physiological and molecular mechanisms in plants under heat stress
2022, Managing Plant Stress Using Salicylic Acid: Physiological and Molecular Aspects