Drought Stress Response of Andean Potato

The response to moderate and heavy drought of two Solanum tuberosum ssp. Andigena varieties, Sullu (NP 03.03) and SA 2563 (NP 03.01), planted in rain- and soil water protected fields in the Peruvian highlands are compared. Previous experiments indicate that Sullu has a greater capacity for yield maintenance under drought than SA 2563. Both clones have similar morphological properties, vegetative periods and rooting depths, so it can be assumed that the cause for increased drought tolerance of clone NP 03.03 is rather due to physiological or biochemical mechanisms, than to drought escape by deep rooting or earliness. Sullu and SA 2563 were planted in a random block design with 5 plants per bloc and 7 repetitions per treatment. Treatments: (1) drought stress, (2) irrigated control The plants were drip-irrigated in both treatments until tuberization (until day 84 after planting). Subsequently, the irrigation was stopped in the drought field, but continued in the control field. The soil moisture content in the control field was kept near field capacity. Planting date: October 05 2004 Start of drought treatment (during tuberization, 84 days after planting): December 28 2004 First sampling (soil water potential: -0.3 mPa 114 days after planting): January 27 2005 Second sampling (soil water potential –0.6 MPa, 134 days after planting): February 15 2005 Harvest: March 19 2005 (165 days after planting) The experimental design includes gene expression analysis in leaves, roots and stolons at two time points, when soil water potential reaches -0.3 and –0.6 MPa. Gene expression changes will be set in relation with physiological and agronomical data obtained in the same experiment. Keywords: Direct comparison 19 hybs total