Water Stress-Induced Osmotic Adjustment in Expanding Leaves of Tepary Bean )Phaseolus actifolins, Gray) Seedlings

摘要

Tepary beans perform better than common beans under drought conditions. The mechanism of drought tolerance in tepary bean seedlings was explored by determining the water potential, osmotic potentia4 relative water content and level of free sugars and concentration of K ions within expanding leaves. Two week old seedlings were subjected to a gradual water stress with sorbitol solutions exhibiting OP values of -0.19 MPa and -0.47 MPa. Tugor remained constant whereas WP, OP and RWC declined following the stress treatment. Osmotic adjustment (0.4) occurred in each treatment but the contribution of sucrose and fructose to OA was minor. Some sorbitol was translocated to leaves and contributed to OA. The K ions did not contribute to the OA. A significant decrease in cell size was observed