Changes in Morpho-physiological Attributes and Gene Expression in Pearl Millet Parental Lines During Seedling Stage Drought Stress

Abstract

Drought, being a devastating abiotic factor, affects the productivity of many crops. Being a climate-resilient crop, pearl millet’s adaptability towards arid regions attracts us to examine morpho-physiological and molecular mechanisms during seedling drought stress. The experimental material consisted of 41 genotypes subjected to drought stress at the seedling stage. Significant differences for morpho-physiological traits such as SL, R/S, RWC, RL (except treatments), and WRC (except-G×T interaction) were observed. Two tolerant and two susceptible genotypes were selected based on RWC under drought conditions. A set of seven genes (ST, NAC, 26S, TD, WD-40, GAUT and ASR) of drought-related pathways were selected and their expression patterns were analyzed in these genotypes. The expression of drought-related genes was in confirmation with the morpho-physiological traits. Our study suggests that drought screening at the early seedling stage for morpho-physiological traits will aid the breeders in the development of drought-tolerant parental lines and hybrids.