Assessing the effects of strigolactone on the drought tolerance of underutilised tomato landraces in farmer conditions
Underutilised landraces of major crops are an untapped source of resilience in the face of climate change, and may be an important resource for biodiversity.
Strigolactones are phytohormones with a positive effect on tomato performance under drought.
Thus, in our work, underutilised and stress-resilient tomato cultivars selected during previous EU projects were tested for water deficit stress responses after being mock treated or treated with the strigolactone analogue GR24. The experiment was performed during the 2023 spring/summer vegetation period in farm settings under a high tunnel using a randomised block experimental design.
Plants of three tomato landraces (T27, T43, T271) were divided into two blocks each (I-II), two stress levels (stressed-unstressed), and hormone treatments (treated-untreated). Plants were spray-treated at the start of flowering with a 5-µM solution of the strigolactone analogue GR24, while stress was administered by halving irrigation times starting with blossoming and ending with the first harvest.
Stomatal conductance (mmol m‑2 s‑1), commercial yield plant‑1 (g), number of fruits, single fruit weight (g fruit‑1), total acidity (mg L‑1), Brix (%), and firmness (kg) were all measured in the study.
Each cultivar had a different stomatal conductance response: for T27, it went down under stress conditions; for T271, it went up; and for T43, it stood stable.
Regarding the commercial fruit yield, T271 demonstrated the most stable performance under stress conditions.
The total number of fruits plant‑1 did not show a significant variation in any cultivar, except for T271, where the number of fruits in treated plants under unstressed conditions was significantly lower than in all other cases.
No other measured parameters had statistically significant differences upon GR24 treatment and across all conditions, except for acidity.
Nonetheless, stressed and GR24-treated plants showed a consistent trend towards higher stomatal conductance and commercial yield when compared to stressed and untreated; regarding fruits, they were more numerous, firmer, with higher total acidity content, and Brix than untreated plants under stress conditions.
This work was supported by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme through the project: Realising Dynamic Value Chains for Underutilised Crops” (RADIANT). Grant agreement No. 101000622.
Sahin, N., Visentin, I., Schubert, A. and Cardinale, F. (2025). Assessing the effects of strigolactone on the drought tolerance of underutilised tomato landraces in farmer conditions. Acta Hortic. 1416, 487-492
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2025.1416.62
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2025.1416.62
DOI: 10.17660/ActaHortic.2025.1416.62
https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.2025.1416.62
fruit quality, drought stress resilience, strigolactones, tomato, underutilized crops
English
1416_62
487-492