ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Crop and Product Physiology
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2025.1640412
This article is part of the Research TopicElucidating the Molecular, Physiological, and Biochemical Mechanisms Underlying Stress Responses in Crop PlantsView all 19 articles
Calligonum caput-medusae seedlings adapt to drought stress through changing chlorophyll fluorescence parameters
Provisionally accepted
- 1College of Hydraulic Engineering, Yangling Vocational and Technical College, Xianyang, China
- 2Northwest A&F University, Xianyang, China
- 3Shaanxi Coal and Chemical Industry Group Co Ltd, Xi'an, China
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Abstract: Understanding plants responses to drought stress is crucial for selecting appropriate species for shelter-forest construction in arid and semi-arid regions. Calligonum caput-medusae, one of the most planted shrubs along the Taklimakan Desert Highway Shelterbelt (TDHS), contributes significantly to maintaining the highway’s ecological stability. This study aimed to investigate the physiological responses of biennial C. caput-medusae seedlings to drought stress by monitoring changes in soil moisture and chlorophyll fluorescence parameters [actual photo chemical efficiency of PSII (Y(II)), unregulated energy dissipation quantum yield (Y(NO)), non-photochemical quenching coefficient (NPQ), and regulatory energy dissipation quantum yield (Y(NPQ) )] under controlled conditions. The results showed that soil moisture declined progressively with prolonged drought stress. Although the photosystem II (PSII) reaction centers of the seedlings experienced some stress after 30 days of drought, no irreversible photodamage occurred. However, the risk of photoinhibition and damage to the photosynthetic apparatus increased with prolonged drought, as evidenced by an increase in NPQ. These findings suggest that C. caput-medusae seedlings adapt to drought stress by modulating their chlorophyll fluorescence characteristics, enhancing our understanding of its drought adaptation mechanisms and highlighting the need for future research on its long-term physiological responses under field conditions and varying drought intensities.
Keywords: Calligonum caput-medusae, Drought stress, photosystem II, Physiology, soil moisture
Received: 03 Jun 2025; Accepted: 18 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Huo, Jaffar, Zhang and Shang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Jianguo Zhang, Northwest A&F University, Xianyang, China
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