Format: ORAL

Anai Pereira1,2, Frederic Lens1,2

1 Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, The Netherlands 2 Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands

As the worlds human population continues to grow and droughts become more intense and frequent, monitoring drought-responsive anatomical and ecophysiological traits in crops is crucial to guarantee food security in the future. Brassica oleracea is a relevant crop species with cultivars mostly consumed as vegetables. In our research, we crossed a woody accession of B. oleracea native to the island of Jersey- commonly known as Jersey cabbage - with an herbaceous, rapid flowering accession TO1000 of the same species. Five F2 genotypes were selected based on their contrasting levels of stem woodiness, along with the two grandparent lines. To evaluate whether stem woodiness is involved in the mechanisms leading to drought tolerance in cabbage, we monitored a broad range of key drought-responsive anatomical and ecophysiological traits under well-watered conditions and during controlled drought. Examples of these traits are stem woodiness, pit membrane thickness, leaf water potential, leaf turgor loss point, embolism resistance in stems and leaves, hydraulic safety margin, and stomatal conductance. We hypothesize that (1) the more woody genotypes are more drought tolerant, (2) the more drought-tolerant genotypes use a coordinated set of anatomical and ecophysiological traits in both stems and leaves to reach a certain level of drought tolerance, and (3) these trait syndromes may differ among the genotypes studied.