Improved potato varieties and water management technologies to enhance WUE, resilience cost effectiveness and productivity of smallholder farms in stress-prone Central Asian environment 2012-2015  

Potato may suffer significant yield reductions even under short periods of water stress, but in spite of its sensitivity, it still produces reasonable yields under conditions that can cause other crops to fail. Fundamental research has provided significant gains in the understanding of the physiological and molecular responses of potato to water stress. A number of physiological and morphological adaptive traits have been identified and evaluated; however, no single trait has been shown to be highly correlated with yield performance. Thus, capturing more than one adaptive trait by measuring variables associated with them may help to assess the plant’s ability to cope with variable water stress conditions.
Agronomic traits such as biomass development, phenology and yield and harvest index will be determined. In addition, adaptive traits such as leaf area development, stomatal conductance and photosynthesis, carbon isotope discrimination, and abscisic acid (ABA) concentration will be measured. The implication of this hormone in drought-activated pathways and in the control of stomatal conductance makes it a target for improving drought tolerance. Within this WP an indirect competitive ELISA for measuring ABA and standardization of a rapid procedure for extracting free ABA from leaf samples developed at UHOH will be established at the partners site. Assessments of the above-mentioned adaptive traits will allow assessing the traits genotypes employ in drought stress coping strategies. Those that show high transpiration efficiency but do not resort to any of these adaptive traits will be assumed to use another mechanism. The identification of genotypes that adopt different adaptive traits in response to drought stress will be of great importance to a breeding program. The best 30 clones identified in the panel will be dispatched to Central Asia, where total biomass and yield performance will be assessed under local conditions in to select adapted clones.

PhD

MSc

Topic

Physiological responses of field-grown potato to water deficit
Master of Science Thesis, Leah Kuppinger [Germany]

Temperature and spectral reflectance in potato clones under progressive drought
Master of Science Thesis, Jesus Zamaran [Peru]

Publications

Paper

Poster

Hoelle, J., Zumaran, J., Farafan, E., Bonierbale, M., Asch, F. 2017.
"Drought effects on the synchrony of above ground and below ground phenology of five potato clones".
Tropentag 2017, September 20-22, University of Bonn, Germany

Kuppinger, L., Auber, J., Farfan, E., Khan, M.A., Bonierbale, M., Asch, F. 2014
"Effects of drought stress on crop development, growth and chlorophyll fluorescence in five potato clones".
"Bridging the gap between increasing knowledge and decreasing resources" - Tropentag 2014, September 17-19, Prague, Czech Republic
Poster award - First prize.

Auber, J., Khan, M.A., Farfan, E., Bonierbale, M., Asch, F. 2014
"Does combining canopy reflectance and canopy temperature allow identifying drought resistance strategies in potato?".
"Bridging the gap between increasing knowledge and decreasing resources" - Tropentag 2014, September 17-19, Prague, Czech Republic

Auber, J.,Bonierbale, M., Asch, F. 2013
"Screening Potato for Drought Tolerance by Linking Physiological to Morphological Traits".
"Agricultural development within the rural-urban continuum" - Tropentag 2013, September 17 - 19, Hohenheim, Germany