Evaluation of tolerance to water stress in beans

Abstract

The goal of this study was to evaluate the genotypes of beans, and to sort them into groups that are tolerant and sensitive to water stress, by assessing their morphological characteristics for use in blocks of crosses and the study of gene expression. We evaluated nine bean genotypes: IAPAR 14, IAPAR 81, Pérola, IPR Colibri, IPR Juriti, IPR Chopim, IPR Gralha, and IPR Tiziu IPR Uirapuru. The genotypes were subjected to two irrigation conditions: i) irrigation water as needed throughout the culture cycle and ii) irrigation water as needed until the appearance of the first bud, followed by no irrigation water for 15 days. The experimental design was in randomized blocks with three replications. The characteristics evaluated were: i) plant height; ii) stem diameter, iii) number of pods per plant, iv) number of grains per pod, v) root length and vi) root dry mass. Stem diameter should not be used to determine if bean genotypes are tolerant or susceptible to water shortages. The results for the Pérola genotype were the highest for most of the characteristics evaluated, and, for this reason, it was classified as tolerant to water stress during flowering. The genotypes IAPAR and 81 IPR Juriti had the lowest results for the most features and were classified as susceptible to water stress during flowering.

Keywords

• Abiotic stress
• Gene expression
• Morphologic characters
• Phaseolus vulgaris L.