Morphological, physiological and genetic parameters of different hop and common bean varieties were studied with the aim to develop a method for determination of drought tolerance that can be applied in breeding programs. Drought stress can be efficiently evaluated with nonspecific methods, where more parameters are considered and thus a comprehensive picture of the physiological status of plants is obtained. TRAP test is used to assess the resistance to oxidative stress or to determine the overall antioxidant activity of the sample examined. It proved to be an effective method for determination of drought tolerance, which can be directly used as a selection criteria in the breeding process of new hop and common beans varieties.
F.09 Development of a new technological process or technology
COBISS.SI-ID: 560268The mechanism of drought tolerance is very complex; therefore different approaches for revealing the mechanism of drought tolerance in bean were used. Based on the results of physiological analyses better adaptation to drought stress was determined in cv. Tiber compared to cv. Starozagorski čern. Using biochemical methods, five aminoand endopeptidases differently expressed in drought were identified. Using proteomic analyses, 76 protein spots were differentially expressed in drought in cv. Starozagorski čern compared to the control, unstressed plants. Different molecular markers were amplified in cvs. Tiber and Starozagorski čern for the use in QTL mapping.
B.03 Paper at an international scientific conference
COBISS.SI-ID: 3698024Common bean is nutritionally very important legume plant that exhibits sensitivity to drought which affects its growth and yield. Plants developed mechanisms in adapting to drought, which are expressed by changes of gene expression and functional protein content, together with responses at physiological and morphological levels. Identifying changes in responses to drought in different species will provide markers essential to characterize candidate genotypes for marker assisted selection in breeding for greater drought tolerance. To establish differences between plants subjected to water withdrawal and normally watered plants of common bean, the parental cultivars, drought tolerant Tiber and drought susceptible variety Starozagorski čern, were grown in a growth chamber under controlled environment conditions. Plants were watered daily to the same pot weight. After three weeks the half of plants were stressed by withholding irrigation. The measurements were taken at the different stage of drought at the third trifoliate leaves. The hydration state of leaves was defined by their relative water content (RWC), water potential (Ψw) and different photosynthetic parameters. Detached leaf samples are kept at 80°C for further analyses. In water stressed plants RWC dropped to 50% compared to control plants. Due to the reduction of water potential, the duration of the leaf stomata closure was increased as confirmed by the results of photosynthetic and other physiological parameters. In addition differences in response to drought between the cultivars were confirmed, which form the basis for a further study of genetic variation with molecular markers and mapping of loci linked to quantitative traits.
D.09 Tutoring for postgraduate students
COBISS.SI-ID: 4320360With the anticipated climate change drought is foreseen as becoming one of the most serious constraints for agriculture production. Exposure of plants to drought stress causes various physiological changes and can have deleterious effect on different cell functions. Changes are detected on different levels, on genetic as well as on the level of proteins. Common bean is susceptible to drought, but the mechanism of its response is not well characterized yet. In the presented article a survey of the research of the bean response to drought, carried out in Slovenia in the last decade is presented. The response has been studied on several levels, from genetic and genomic analyses, proteomic studies and studies of plant proteases to physiological response of plants to drought stress. One of the goals is also identification of quantitative trait loci for drought tolerance and development of a linkage map to facilitate the common bean breeding process.
B.03 Paper at an international scientific conference
COBISS.SI-ID: 4019560In the invited lecture the results of studies of drought stress response in common bean in the last ten years were presented with Slovene and partners abroad. These included studies on morphological, physiological, transcriptome and proteome level. In the last years the research was focused towards the studies of drought stress response in two cultivars differing in the responese to drought, Tiber (tolerant) and Starozagorski čern (susceptible) using proteomics. The two cultivars were used for generation of 82 recombinant inbred lines of F8 generation. A genetic map for QTL analysis was developed. The knowledge of mechanisms of drought stress response is important for identification of traits used in common bean breeding for drought tolerance.
B.04 Guest lecture
COBISS.SI-ID: 4522856