Adaptation Responses to Early Drought Stress ofWest Africa Sorghum Varieties
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Date
2021-02
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
MDPI
Abstract
Sorghum is the fifth most important cereal crop world-wide and feeds millions of people
in the Sahel. However, it often faces early-stage water deficit due to false onsets of rainy seasons
resulting in production decrease. Therefore, developing early drought tolerant material becomes a
necessity but requires a good knowledge of adaptation mechanisms, which remains to be elucidated.
The present study aimed at assessing the effects of early drought stress on ten elite sorghum varieties
tested over two years (2018–2019) at the National Agronomic Research Centre (CNRA) of Bambey
(Senegal, West Africa). Two different water regimes (well-watered and drought stress) were applied
during the dry season. Water stress was applied by withholding irrigation 25 days after sowing
for one month, followed by optimal irrigation until maturity. Soil moisture measurements were
performed and allowed to follow the level of stress (down to a fraction of transpirable soil water
(FTSW) of 0.30 at the end of stress). An agro-physio-morphological monitoring was carried out during
the experiment. Results showed highly significant effects of early drought stress in sorghum plants
growth by decreasing leaf appearance, biomass, height but also yield set up. The combined analysis
of variance revealed highly significant differences (p 0.01) between varieties in the different
environments for most characters. Under water deficit, the variability was less strong on leaf
appearance and plant height at the end of stress. The adaptation responses were related to the
capacity of varieties to grow up fast and complete their cycle rather, increase the dead leaves weight,
reduce photosynthesis rate, stomatal conductance, leaf transpiration and increase the roots length
density. However, varieties V1, V2, V8 and V9 showed promising behavior under stress and could be
suitable for further application in West Africa for sorghum breeding and farming
Description
Agronomy 2021, 11, 443.
Keywords
early drought tolerance, early drought tolerance, photosynthesis;, physiological response, Root adaptation, Sahel, sorghum, Bassirou Sine, Vincent Vadez, Diaga Diouf, Alain Audebert
Citation
Gano, B.; Dembele, J.S.B.; Tovignan, T.K.; Sine, B.; Vadez, V.; Diouf, D.; Audebert, A. Adaptation Responses to Early Drought Stress of West Africa Sorghum Varieties. Agronomy 2021, 11, 443. https:// doi.org/10.3390/agronomy11030443