The UJI analyses the impact of climate change on citrus plants

A pioneering research at the Universitat Jaume I has analysed the joint impact of drought and heat, two of the stress factors associated with climate change on citrus plants growing, with the goal of advancing in the development of tools to fight global warming. Work results have just been published in the BMC Plant Biology journal.

The lack of water resources and the high temperatures have traditionally been studied "in isolation, but we must take into account that adverse conditions exist in nature simultaneously. For this reason, we decided to combine both stresses and check their effects”, explains Sara Izquierdo Zandalinas, one of the authors of the research and researcher at the Department of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Environment.

This work has deepened into the impact of drought and heat on physiological parameters and hormonal regulation in the two most common patterns used in citrus fruit culture: the Citrange Carrizo foot and the Cleopatra mandarin tree. One of the most important conclusions of the study is that the Carrizo Citrange foot, which is used in most citrus varieties grown in the Valencian field, seems to be more tolerant to the combination of drought and heat than the Cleopatra mandarin tree.

"The main causes of this increased tolerance point to an increased perspiration, which would result in a lower leaf temperature, coupled with a lower incidence of oxidative stress”, argues Vicent Arbona, lecturer and researcher in the same department. In addition, the hormonal results of this study indicate that the responses of citrus to the combination of drought and heat "are specific and not merely an additive effect of the isolated factors of stress”, adds Arbona.

ORANGE TREES MORE ADAPTED TO EXTREME CLIMATE

This study of the Universitat Jaume I is an initial approximation to know "the direction in which patterns citrus with real factors have to advance in order to have a greater resistance to the extreme weather conditions foreseen for the Mediterranean area”, explains Sara Izquierdo, who emphasizes the potential of breeding techniques and biotech crops.

The lecturer Vicent Arbona and the researcher Sara Izquierdo Zandalinas belong to the Department of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Environment of the Universitat Jaume I. They develop their research in the group of Ecophysiology and Biotechnology led by Professor Aurelio Gómez Cadenas. The main research lines of this group deal with the responses and tolerance mechanisms of citrus plants and other crops to abiotic stresses such as drought, flooding or salinity, and its hormonal control. In addition, the group applies biotechnology techniques like in vitro culture and determines the metabolic changes of plants in response to stress.

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Zandalinas, S.I.; Rivero, R.M.; Martínez, V.; Gómez-Cadenas, A.; Arbona, V. (2016): «Tolerance of citrus plants to the combination of high temperatures and drought is associated to the increase in transpiration modulated by a reduction in abscisic acid levels». BMC Plant Biology, 16, 105.