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Relative contribution of stomatal parameters in influencing WUE among rice mutants differing in leaf mass area

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Abstract

Water use efficiency (WUE) is an important physiological trait that has potential in sustaining crop productivity under water-limited condition. WUE can be increased by improving carbon gain and/or reducing transpiration. Normally, carbon gain and transpiration are inter-related and hence a trade-off exists between transpiration and WUE. Therefore, factors that influence these traits and their inter-relationship need to be identified and characterised. Here we report that leaf mass area (LMA) has one such trait that regulate WUE by influencing carbon gain. Extensive screening of EMS induced mutant population of Nagina-22 (N22) led to identification of contrasting LMA mutants. The high LMA mutant with 27% higher LMA (5.10 mg cm−2) than N22, and a low LMA mutant (4.00 mg cm−2) with comparable canopy leaf area and root weight were selected to study the influence of stomatal density and size on cumulative water transpired (CWT) and WUE under two soil moisture conditions (100% FC and 50% FC). The high LMA mutant, had higher stomatal density leading to increased CWT. But, a reduction in stomatal size on both abaxial and adaxial surfaces under water-limited conditions did not influence CWT. Increased photosynthetic efficiency due to higher leaf thickness led to higher carbon gain and hence higher WUE. The results indicate that improving carbon assimilation through higher LMA would significantly circumvent the trade-off between water loss and biomass accumulation leading to higher WUE. Thus, high chloroplast capacity types would have higher WUE despite relatively high water use.

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Acknowledgements

This research work was financially supported by Department of Biotechnology, New Delhi (Project No. BT/PR10787/AGIII/103/883/2014). Authors thank Prof. Udayakumar M and Prof T.G. Prasad for technical discussions and critical suggestions during the conduct of experiments. Authors also thank Dr. MS. Bobji, Assistant professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Indian Institute of Science, for use of scanning electron microscope facility of the department. Dr. Trilochan Mohapatra, Director General, ICAR and Secretary DARE government of India, was instrumental in initiating this program on development and characterization of rice mutants in India.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Crop Physiology, University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, Bengaluru, India

    Sowmya Handenahally Reddy, Maria Vera Jesus Da Costa, Sumanth Kumar Kambalimath & Sheshshayee M. Sreeman

  2. Zonal Agricultural Research Station, VC Farm Campus, UASB, Mandya, India

    P. Rajanna Mavinahalli

  3. Center for Plant Molecular Biology, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, India

    Raveendran Muthurajan

  4. Division of Plant Physiology, Indian Council for Agricultural Research, New Delhi, India

    Viswanathan Chinnusamy

  5. ICAR-National Institute for Plant Biotechnology, New Delhi, India

    Amitha Mithra Sevanthi, Nagendra K. Singh & Rameshwar P. Sharma

  6. ICAR- Indian Institute Rice Research, Hyderabad, India

    Sarla Neelamraju

  7. Division of Genetics, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, India

    S. Gopala Krishnan & Ashok K. Singh

  8. Department of Biochemistry, Kuvempu University, Shivmoga, India

    Sowmya Handenahally Reddy & Niranjana Pathappa

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  1. Sowmya Handenahally Reddy
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Correspondence to Niranjana Pathappa or Sheshshayee M. Sreeman.

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Reddy, S.H., Da Costa, M.V.J., Kambalimath, S.K. et al. Relative contribution of stomatal parameters in influencing WUE among rice mutants differing in leaf mass area. Plant Physiol. Rep. 25, 483–495 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40502-020-00537-1

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