Rootstock-induced physiological and biochemical mechanisms of drought tolerance in sweet orange

The poorly understood physiological and biochemical drought responses induced in sweet orange by citrus rootstocks of contrasting drought tolerance were investigated during a drought/rewatering cycle under controlled conditions. Long-term exposure of the grafted trees to a gradually increasing water deficit and subsequent recovery revealed distinct strategies of drought acclimation that were induced by the different rootstocks. Trees grafted onto the drought-tolerant rootstock ‘Cravo’ rangpur lime were less water conservative, exhibiting an increased cell-wall elasticity that contributes to turgor maintenance and its related processes of growth and photosynthesis over a wider range of soil–water potentials. On the other hand, the drought-tolerant ‘Sunki Tropical’ mandarin and drought-sensitive ‘Flying Dragon’ trifoliate orange rootstocks induced a water conservation strategy by increasing tissue rigidity under drought. ‘Sunki Tropical’ was also able to induce osmotic adjustment, conferring thereby a more efficient water conservation strategy than ‘Flying Dragon’ by allowing for turgor maintenance at lower soil–water potentials while attenuating cell dehydration and shrinkage. In contrast to ‘Cravo’ and ‘Sunki Tropical’, trees grafted onto ‘Flying Dragon’ exhibited a significant photoinhibition of the photosystem II reaction centers, as well as an increased H₂O₂ production and lipid peroxidation under drought treatment. A significantly higher activity of the antioxidant enzyme GPX was also observed in drought stressed trees grafted onto ‘Flying Dragon’. Collectively, these results support the involvement of elastic and osmotic adjustments, as well as the control of oxidative stress, as functional leaf traits associated with the rootstock-induced drought tolerance in sweet orange.