Moisture-level dependent trait profile of drought response in Gossypium hirsutum

Tahreem Arif; Maqbool Ahamd; Fahad Idrees; Muhammad Tahir; Rukhsar Shaheen; Abdul Manan; Xinyan Zhao; Muhammad Junaid; Can Zhang

doi:10.66432/g17gf887

Tahreem Arif * Beijing Forestry University , State Key Laboratory of Efficient Production of Forest Resources, Key Laboratory of Forest Silviculture and Conservation of the Ministry of Education, The College of Forestry, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China , Maqbool Ahamd MARA Key Laboratory of Crop Ecophysiology and Farming System in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River, College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, Hubei, China , Fahad Idrees National Key Lab of Crop Genetic Improvement and College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, China. , Muhammad Tahir Key Laboratory of Genetics and Breeding in Forest Trees and Ornamental Plants, Ministry of Education, College of Biological Sciences and Biotechnology, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China , Rukhsar Shaheen MARA Key Laboratory of Crop Ecophysiology and Farming System in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River, College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, Hubei, China , Abdul Manan Institute of Crop Science, College of Agriculture and Biotechnology, Zhejiang Provincial Key Laboratory of Crop Germplasm, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China , Xinyan Zhao State Key Laboratory of Efficient Production of Forest Resources, Key Laboratory of Forest Silviculture and Conservation of the Ministry of Education, The College of Forestry, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China , Muhammad Junaid Department of Climate Change, College of Agriculture, University of Haripur, Haripur, Pakistan , Can Zhang State Key Laboratory of Efficient Production of Forest Resources, Key Laboratory of Forest Silviculture and Conservation of the Ministry of Education, The College of Forestry, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China

* Corresponding author: tahreem939@gmail.com

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.66432/g17gf887

Keywords:

cotton, Drought, excised leaf water loss, relative water content, peroxidase, hydrogen peroxide

Abstract

Drought is one of the major abiotic stresses limiting cotton productivity, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions. The screening at the seedling stage has been extensively utilized to accelerate the process of selection, but the role of growth, water status, and oxidative traits can change with moisture conditions. Understanding this dependence on moisture-level is essential for trait-based phenotyping and drought-resilient breeding. A greenhouse study was conducted using forty upland cotton accessions grown under 100%, 75%, and 50% field capacity in a two-replications factorial completely randomized design. After two weeks of sowing, stress was imposed, and measurements were recorded at 45 days. Analysis of variance, regime-specific trait summaries, principal component analysis, and K-means clustering were used to interpret the dataset. Drought had decreased the shoot length and relative water content and changed the covariance pattern among traits. ANOVA revealed that genotypes, moisture treatment, and the interaction of genotype and treatment had significant effects on all traits. Multivariate analysis revealed a trait architecture shift as moisture decreased. ELWL and RL were observed to play a major role in principal component structure under normal water conditions, whereas POD and H₂O₂ had a dominant role under moderate and severe drought. Cluster centroids further distinguish between profiles related to higher antioxidant activity. The findings revealed that cotton seedlings are moisture-level specific instead of being determined by a hierarchical set of traits under drought stress. This study can be useful for selecting drought screening traits in cotton.

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