Pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata) has been increasingly used as bloomless rootstock for cucumber (Cucumis sativus), but it is sensitive to low-temperature, which is the major bottleneck for winter cultivation. Hence, to develop low-temperature tolerant rootstock varieties, it is needed to identify tolerant germplasm from a wide range of genetic resources. For this, we developed a selection criterion for a quick assessment of low-temperature tolerance in pumpkin germplasms from different geographical origins. We considered various indexes for the fast evaluation of low-temperature tolerance, including seedling developmental stage, type of seedling (excised or non-excised), growth space, etc. Under the testing condition (17℃/7℃, 8 hours light/16 hours dark, 150 μmol m^-2s^-1 light intensity), we found a correlation (r=0.71*) in root growth between 3 weeks-cultured excised seedlings and 6 weeks-cultured non-excised seedlings. Therefore, we extrapolate that excised cotyledonary stage seedling treated for 3 weeks is sufficient to differentiate the tolerant germplasms. Using this screening method, we identified the “S81015” could prevail low-temperature stress. Further, we tested grafting compatibility and growth of grafted cucumbers under the low-temperature condition to assess the effect of rootstock and identify low-temperature tolerant and grafting-compatible rootstock germplasm. Upon grafting, we found a high correlation (r=0.97**) between the root fresh weight of 6 weeks-cultured non-excised seedlings and the shoot fresh weight of the grafted cucumbers. In summary, we could identify the low-temperature tolerant pumpkin germplasms by screening at the early developmental stage. Further, as a rootstock, the tolerant pumpkins also fortified the low-temperature tolerance of grafted cucumbers.

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• Identification of a Novel Candidate Gene for Chilling Tolerance in Pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata) Using Whole-Genome Resequencing
  Hemasundar Alavilli, Jeong-Jin Lee, Chae-Rin You, Sang-Choon Lee, Kihwan Song
  Journal of Plant Biology.2023; 66(4): 317.     CrossRef

Drought is one of the major abiotic factors that have a serious effect on the production of cereals crops including maize, which is grown widely in the world. Screening based on drought facilitates selection of inbred lines and an understanding of drought-tolerant traits. The effect of drought stress and rescue after stress on maize inbred lines was investigated in this study. Different plant growth attributes namely plant height, leaf area and weight, stem weight, root length, shoot and root fresh and dry weight, and total leaf chlorophyll content were measured. Six flint inbred lines (FLD 12, FLD 23, FLD 24, FLD 33, FLD 35, and FLD 37) were screened as drought-tolerant lines, whereas another six flint inbred lines (FLD 01, FLD 13, FLD 16, FLD 18, FLD 29, and FLD 31) were screened as drought susceptible lines. Growth attributes under different drought conditions were subjected to a correlation test and analysis of variance and showed highly significant relationships with each other. The drought effect differed with different inbred lines, indicating a wide variability of drought response at the early growth stage of maize plants. The results obtained from this study will be useful for selecting maize inbred lines in future breeding programs for enhancing drought tolerance.

Citations

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• Review on Effects of Drought Stress on Maize Growth, Yield and Its Management Strategies
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  Communications in Soil Science and Plant Analysis.2025; 56(1): 123.     CrossRef
• Drought tolerance screening of maize accessions at early growth stage in the mid-hills of Nepal
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  Cogent Food & Agriculture.2024;[Epub]     CrossRef
• Breeding Drought-Tolerant Maize (Zea mays) Using Molecular Breeding Tools: Recent Advancements and Future Prospective
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  Agronomy.2023; 13(6): 1459.     CrossRef
• Evaluation of water deficit tolerance in maize genotypes using biochemical, physio-morphological changes and yield traits as multivariate cluster analysis
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  Notulae Botanicae Horti Agrobotanici Cluj-Napoca.2022; 50(1): 12572.     CrossRef
• Overexpressing OsPYL/RCAR7 Improves Drought Tolerance of Maize Seedlings by Reducing Stomatal Conductance
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  Agriculture.2022; 12(12): 2140.     CrossRef
• Association Study for Drought Tolerance of Flint Maize Inbred Lines Using SSR Markers
  Kyu Jin Sa, Hyeon Park, Zhenyu Fu, So Jung Jang, Ju-Kyong Lee
  Plant Breeding and Biotechnology.2022; 10(4): 257.     CrossRef