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The performance of a soybean genotype under water deficit stress at an early vegetative stage might be related to its general tolerance to drought. To investigate the plasticity of root and shoot seedling traits in response to drought at an early vegetative stage, a set of 32 soybean genotypes adapted to southeast European growing conditions was grown under polyethylene glycol (PEG) 8000-induced drought stress and well-watered control conditions. Under drought, mean tap root length (RL), shoot length (SL), root fresh weight (RFW) and shoot fresh weight (SFW) decreased significantly by 11, 17, 38 and 34%, respectively, while root dry matter (RDM) and shoot dry matter (SDM) increased significantly by 13 and 11%, respectively. Of the four derived traits, the ratios of RL/SL, RL/RFW and SL/SFW increased significantly by 8, 45 and 28%, respectively, under drought, while the ratio of RFW/SFW decreased significantly by 4%. However, a wide variation between genotypes was observed for all 10 studied seedling traits under both control and drought conditions. Broad sense heritability ranged from 0.53 (RL) to 0.97 (SL) under control conditions and from 0.56 (RL/RFW) to 0.96 (SL) under drought conditions. The correlation coefficients between the traits were either weak or moderate, indicating that the studied traits can be modified independently by selection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought negatively affects plants by altering morphological, physiological and metabolic processes and ultimately reducing yields. Garlic (Allium sativum L.), an important member of the Alliaceae family, is also sensitive to drought and maximizing the yield of garlic bulbs is largely dependent on water availability. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of drought stress on morphological and physiological characteristics, as well as on phenolic, sugar, inulin and free amino acid content and antioxidant activity in two Croatian garlic ecotypes, 'Istarski crveni' (IC) and Istarski bijeli (IB). Drought was induced by using polyethylene glycol 8000 (PEG) solution (−0.6 MPa) starting 21 days after clove planting and lasted for 20 days. Drought reduced plant height, number of leaves and plant weight, but increased root length in both ecotypes compared to the control treatment. Among the physiological parameters, significant differences were observed between the two ecotypes studied in the spectral characteristics of the leaves, namely reflection in red, green and blue, VAL, values of the vegetation indices related to the chlorophyll content (CHI, GI), and the anthocyanin content (ARI). Ecotype IC showed higher antioxidant activity in the control treatment due to higher total phenolic content (TPC), but under drought conditions higher DPPH radical scavenging activity was determined in ecotype IB and higher values of FRAP in IC. Sucrose and glucose generally decreased under drought, while inulin increased in IB but decreased in IC. Total free amino acid content increased under drought in both ecotypes. In conclusion, drought tolerance of IB might be associated with increased accumulation of inulin and higher levels of amino acids, especially those shown to contribute to drought resistance. In IC, drought tolerance is associated with an increase in some amino acid compounds and better root growth in depth, probably due to a more efficient translocation of sucrose to the underground part of the plant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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