Application of xerophytophysiology in plant production - Growing wheat on ridged bed

摘要

Wheat has been conventionally planted in flat beds with flood irrigation. Recently, wheat cultivation on a ridged high bed is adopted in wheat production, leading to improvements in water use efficiency and grain yield. However, the physiological mechanisms are not clear enough. In this study, planting wheat on ridged beds was taken as one of applications of xerophytophysiology in plant production and the related mechanisms were analyzed. Results showed that, compared with the wheat plants grown in flat beds, leaves of wheat plants grown on ridged beds actively accumulated more solutes, maintained higher turgor potential, compartmented the cell water more into symplasm with a larger fraction and consequently performed better in photosynthesis and more resistant to diseases and lodging, leading to a final higher grain yield. It was suggested that wheat plants perceived the unusual conditions in the ridged beds, where the good aeration without any gravity water and low humidity and high light penetration in the canopy were similar to those of a mild drought, which induced the internal physiological regulations such as osmotic adjustment and symplastic water compartmenting and external morphological strengthening characterized by more leaf surface wax deposit and stronger leaf water retention ability. In conclusion, as a practice of xerophytophysiological applications in plant production, ridged bed planting of wheat was effective in yield improvement and more research is need to elucidate the mechanisms at the molecular biological levels.