Relative gene expression analysis
Water deficit occurred in the soil caused stress in the roots. This stress activated the signaling pathways, altered the gene expression levels and the plant physiology (
Yamaguchi-Shinozaki and Shinozaki, 2006). The response of plants to drought stress was influenced by rootstock used. In our study, RGL mandarin grafted onto different rootstocks (JC, Citrumelo and Kanci) resulted different relative gene expression during the dry and the rainy seasons (Fig 1). For all plant combinations tested, almost all relative gene expressions in the dry season were higher than that in the rainy season. The relative gene expression level among the combinations were different. For almost all primer tested, RGL-K combination resulted the highest value of relative gene expression and RGL-Cit combination resulted the lowest one in the both seasons except in ACS2 and PIP2 primers. The difference of genes expression of the scion showed that rootstocks have different abilities to respond to environmental changes. The difference of relative gene expressions level may be influenced by translocation of RNA, hormones and nutritional components from the rootstock.
The difference expression of each gene presented the difference respond mechanism of the plant to drought stress. The ACS2 and ETR1 induced ethylene productions as respond to drught stress (
Agustí et al., 2008). The CHLASE activated the chlorophyllase enzyme to catalyzes the chlorophyll hydrolysis
(Distefano et al., 2009). The CsNFYA5 regulated the size of the stomatal apertured and acitivated stress responsive genes, such as genes involved in oxidative stress response
(Li et al., 2008; Petroni et al., 2013). The osmotin was a protein related to osmotic stress tolerance that has a function in osmoregulation and food preservation
(Hakim et al., 2018). Water exchange in the plant cells going through the aquaporins or PIP
(Yaneff et al., 2015). Under drought stress, the overexpression of PIP genes leading to involve in the control of plant’s transpiration through regulating of water flow
(Opazo et al., 2020).
Based on clustergram, the genotypes grouped into two clusters related to the season. The primers grouped into three clusters, the CHLASE, ETR1, CsNFYA5, PIP1 and ACS2 primers grouped into one cluster, whereas osmotin and PIP2 were other clusters. The CHLASE, ETR1, CsNFYA5, PIP1 and ACS2 primers were upregulated in RGL-JC and RGL-K combinations in the dry season and downregulated in the rainy season. RGL-Cit combination only upregulated the PIP1, PIP2 and ACS2 and unregulated the others in the dry season (Fig 2). The overexpression of CHLASE, ETR1, CsNFYA5 and PIP1 in the RGL-JC and RGL-K combinations in the dry season caused physiological changes, such as decreased of chlorophyll index, stomatal apertured and transpiration and caused the plant more wilt than RGL-Cit combination (Fig 3). Drought stress caused harmful changes to physiological, morphological and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters (
Ghoulam and Khadraji, 2016;
Zadražnik and Šuštar-Vozliè, 2020). The harmful effects of drought stress were more distinct in drought sensitive genotypes
(Mahantesh et al., 2018).
Stomatal density, stomatal size and percentage of stomata apertured
The results of the physiological character observations on RGL mandarin are presented in Table 2. Different types of rootstocks caused differences in stomatal density, stomatal size and percentage of stomatal apertured. These differences indicated that rootstock have different responses to drouht stress. Drought stimulates decreasing stomatal size and aperture and increasing stomatal density
(Arve et al., 2011; Zhao et al., 2015). In this study, drought only affected the stomata density and the percentage of stomatal apertured, while the size of the stomata was not affected.
The stomata density of RGL-JC and RGL-Cit combinations were higher than RGL-K in the dry season but no difference in the rainy season. The percentage of stomatal apertured of RGL-Cit combination in the dry season was higher than that of other combination. In the rainy season it was same with RGL-JC and higher than RGL-K combination. The size of the stomata of RGL-K combination was the lowest in both seasons. The differences of stomatal characters may be influenced by CsNFYA5 gene expression. The overexpression of the CsNFYA5 gene in RGL-JC and RGL-K combinations (Fig 1) induced their stomata to close to reduce the transpiration. The reduced evapotranspiration surface by the increased number of closed stomata was the avoidance mechanism to drought stress
(Lestari et al., 2019).
Leaf chlorophyll index
In terms of the chlorophyll index character, the leaves chlorophyll index in the rainy season was higher than the dry season. RGL-Cit combination had the highest chlorophyll index in the dry season. RGL-JC combination had the highest chlorophyll index in the rainy season. RGL-K had the lowest chlorophyll index in both of seasons (Table 2). Drought induced senescence of the plants by producing ethylene and hydrolysis of chlorophyll. As explained above that overexpression of CHLASE gene regulated the chlorophyll hydrolysis become phytol and lutein
(Distefano et al., 2009), overexpression of the CHLASE gene in RGL-K combination caused this plant had the lowest chlorophyll index. The lowest value of chlorophyll index of RGL-K combination in water deficit stress indicated that this plant was sensitive to drought stress.
Gas exchange parameters
The water pressure in the cell (DH
2O) of RGL leaves in all combinations did not differ in the same season. The differences occur due to differences of seasons, the value in the rainy season was higher than in the dry season. Using of different rootstocks also has no effect on plant respiration rate. Rootstock affected CO
2 concentration in the cell, stomatal conductance and photosynthetic rate. In the dry season, the RGL-JC combination accumulates the least amount of CO
2 while in the rainy season it occurs in the RGL-K combination. The accumulation of CO
2 in cells affects the stomatal conductance and the rate of photosynthesis. The small accumulation of CO
2 causes a small stomatal conductance and respiration rate. In the dry season, the RGL-Cit combination has the highest photosynthesis rate, while in the rainy season it occurs in the RGL-JC combination (Table 3).
The stomatal character and behavior affected the gas exchange directly in the leaf. Stomata act in gas exchange which is necessary for photosynthesis and transpiration (
Daszkowska-Golec and Szarejko, 2013). High stomatal density and percentage of stomata apertured increased respiration rate and decreased leaf H
2O pressure. Stomatal closure as a response to water deficit reduced the stomatal conductance. This condition indirectly affected the photosynthetic process. Scion-rootstock combination with high stomatal conductance had high CO
2 content in leaf. High concentrate of CO
2 resulted in high photosynthetic rate. Physiological control of stomatal conductance allowed plants to balance CO
2-uptake for photosynthesis
(Haworth et al., 2016). The highest gas exchange parameter value RGL-Cit combination in the dry season indicated that this plant was tolerant to drought stress.