Water deficit priming through regulated deficit irrigation has been shown to be beneficial for peanut cultivation, leading to improved water‐use efficiency during the crop cycle and enhanced stress acclimation. The effects of priming using water deficit can be heritable, but little is known about stress priming effects on the physiology and growth of successive generations undergoing water stress. Two experiments were conducted to assess cross‐generational priming by determining physiological and growth responses of offspring of primed and non‐primed peanut plants of two genotypes, COC‐041 and New Mexico Valencia C (NMV‐C), both previously found to be strongly responsive to priming. Seeds were collected from parental plants subjected to mild water stress by regulated deficit irrigation (primed) or adequate irrigation (non‐primed). These seeds were then planted, and the offspring were monitored for physiological and growth responses to water stress, including on a whole‐plant basis using a high‐throughput physiological phenotyping platform and on individual leaves by periodic single‐leaf measurements. Measurements included whole‐plant transpiration (plant‐Tr), root water uptake, leaf transpiration, stomatal conductance and net CO2 assimilation (leaf‐Tr, leaf‐gs, and leaf‐A), leaf water and osmotic potential (leaf‐Ψw and leaf‐Ψo), leaf osmotic adjustment, leaf relative water content (leaf‐RWC) and cumulative plant‐Tr. Offspring of both genotypes from primed parent plants had faster early establishment, with more uniform germination, and more rapid initial seedling growth compared to offspring from non‐primed parent plants. Although offspring of both non‐primed and primed plants of both genotypes exhibited a significant reduction of plant‐Tr, gas exchange, leaf‐Ψw, leaf‐Ψo, and leaf‐RWC when exposed to water stress, offspring of primed plants showed increased water use efficiency through reduced leaf‐gs, leaf‐Tr and plant‐Tr while maintaining leaf‐A under water stress. Despite offspring of both primed and non‐primed plants being susceptible to severe water stress, offspring of primed plants exhibited overall enhanced water use efficiency, leading to greater dry biomass production per gram of transpired water and a trend of less growth reduction due to water stress compared to offspring of non‐primed plants, especially for the genotype COC‐041. This study shows the potential of water deficit priming to promote cross‐generational changes in physiological function under limited water availability, by enhancing crop stress acclimation in the next plant generation.

中文翻译：

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水分亏缺启动对水分胁迫下花生植株生理的跨代影响


通过调节赤字灌溉来启动水分亏缺已被证明有利于花生种植，从而提高作物周期中的水分利用效率并增强逆境适应能力。利用缺水启动的影响可能是可遗传的，但人们对应激启动对遭受缺水的连续几代人的生理和生长的影响知之甚少。进行了两项实验，通过确定两种基因型 COC-041 和新墨西哥巴伦西亚 C (NMV-C) 的经引发和未引发的花生植物的后代的生理和生长反应来评估跨代引发，这两种基因型之前都发现强烈对启动反应敏感。通过调节赤字灌溉（底漆）或充分灌溉（未底漆）从遭受轻度水分胁迫的亲本植物收集种子。然后种植这些种子，并监测后代对水分胁迫的生理和生长反应，包括使用高通量生理表型平台对整个植物进行监测，以及通过定期单叶测量对单个叶子进行监测。测量包括全株蒸腾量 (plant-Tr)、根吸水量、叶片蒸腾量、气孔导度和二氧化碳净同化量 (leaf-Tr、leaf-gs 和 leaf-A)、叶水和渗透势 (leaf-Ψw 和 leaf-Ψw)叶-Ψo)、叶渗透调节、叶相对含水量(叶-RWC)和累积植物-Tr。与来自未引发的亲本植物的后代相比，来自引发的亲本植物的两种基因型的后代具有更快的早期建立、更均匀的发芽和更快的初始幼苗生长。 尽管两种基因型的未引发和引发的植物的后代在暴露于水分胁迫时均表现出植物-Tr、气体交换、叶-Ψw、叶-Ψo和叶-RWC的显着减少，但引发的植物的后代表现出水分增加通过减少叶-gs、叶-Tr和植物-Tr的利用效率，同时在水分胁迫下保持叶-A。尽管引发剂和非引发剂植物的后代都容易受到严重的水分胁迫，但引发剂植物的后代表现出整体提高的水分利用效率，导致每克蒸腾水的干生物量产量更大，并且由于水分胁迫而出现生长减少较少的趋势与未引发植物的后代相比，特别是对于基因型 COC-041。这项研究表明，在有限的可用水量下，水分亏缺启动有可能通过增强下一代植物的胁迫适应来促进生理功能的跨代变化。