Remobilization of potassium in eucalyptus in response to water stress

• Grant number: 17/23590-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Post-Doctoral
• Start date: May 01, 2018
• End date: June 28, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Agronomy - Crop Science
• Principal Investigator: Paulo Mazzafera
• Grantee: Elcio Ferreira dos Santos
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biologia (IB). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Water stress negatively affects crop yields worldwide. In Brazil, a considerable proportion of eucalyptus plantations are located in regions subject to water stress, stimulating works that study potassium (K) as an option to attenuate this stress in this species. However, there are still gaps on how eucalyptus uses K to attenuate water stress and what are the mechanisms involved. There are few reports in the literature that reported eucalyptus cultivation under drought stress explaining the K translocation. It is known that the K concentration increases in the stem under drought stress conditions, but there is no information how this occurs and what are the mechanisms involved. The objective of this work is to evaluate the K remobilization in eucalyptus in response to drought stress, correlating the physiological responses of species eucalyptus and clones contrasting to drought stress tolerance, to K translocation. The experiment will be conducted in pots with capacity of 50 dm3 with treatments arranged in factorial scheme: 2 (with and without potassium fertilization in soil) x 5 (two clones + three eucalyptus species) x 3 (control + two water regimes), with eight replications. At the end of the experiment water leaf potential, gas exchange parameters, embolism, cell wall constituents, expression of K transporters and aquaporin, as well as density and histological analyzes of the stem will be measured. Finally, leaf and stem samples will be collected for analysis of K concentration using ICP-OES and ¼-XRF ray spectrometry.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

SANTOS, ELCIO FERREIRA; MATEUS, NIKOLAS SOUZA; ROSARIO, MAYK OLIVEIRA; GARCEZ, TIAGO BARRETO; MAZZAFERA, PAULO; LAVRES, JOSE. Enhancing potassium content in leaves and stems improves drought tolerance of eucalyptus clones. PHYSIOLOGIA PLANTARUM, v. 172, n. 2, OCT 2020. (17/23590-9)