As climate changes, the global precipitation pattern has been changing as well. Due to decreased rainfall and drought, many agricultural fields over the world have to rely more heavily on irrigation to properly care for crops. Increased soil salinity caused by agricultural runoff and drought can have adverse effects on crop growth and overall quality. It’s critical to better understand the physiological effects of salinization to inform crop breeding efforts in the future. Plants can adapt to environmental change by adjusting their phenotypes morphologically or physiologically. This is called phenotypic plasticity. However, less is known about how plants physiologically respond to salt stress. We conducted a common garden experiment on a mapping population of Brassica rapa using saltwater. We treated half of our population with regular water as a control group and treated the other half with water to observe the phenotypic and physiological changes it undergoes. Using PhotosynQ, an instrument measuring photosynthetic parameters, we measured photosynthetic variations in the species with different genotypes and treatments. We found phenotypic variation in photosynthetic parameters of Brassica rapa during the experiment. There were significant differences in Phi2, PhiNPQ, and over-reduced area in the photosynthesis due to gene by environment interaction. Those indicated there was plasticity in photosynthetic efficiency of plants responding to salt stress. Further research on identifying related genes and analyzing the quantitative genetic variation would be recommended.
Authors: Alexa Tovrea-Treft, Parker Slaton, Grace Brock
Faculty Advisor: Rob Baker, Department of Biology
Graduate Student Advisor: Hansol Lee, Department of Biology
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