Histological characteristics of sugar beet leaves potentially linked to drought tolerance

Water is becoming more and more limiting factor of sugar beet production and the productivity of the crop can be significantly improved by increased drought tolerance. It is therefore a great challenge to assess the degree of variability of anatomical and morphological traits of breeding material with respect to water use efficiency and drought, that can be used as potential markers for selection of sugar beet genotypes with better tolerance to water shortage. To achieve this, the first step is to assess the degree of genetic variability with respect to anatomical and histological features linked to water management in plants, under optimal water supply. Comparative histiological analysis of lamina and petiole was done on 12 sugar beet genotypes which previously showed divergent responses to lack of water in the field. The plants were grown in semi-controlled conditions of a glasshouse, and watered daily. Mircromorphological analyses were done to assess leaf epidermal characteristics, by both light and SEM, and lamina and petiole histological features. The measurements were used to calculate the percentage of individual tissues in relation to the thickness of the lamina, main vein area and petiole area. The general structure of sample variability was established by principal component analysis (PCA), based on correlation matrix. In majority of genotypes the ratio of the size of cells of spongy parenchyma and palisade cells in average was 80%. Low genotypic variability of the studied histological parameters of the lamina and petiole may reflect the narrow genetic base of tested breeding material. The most significant genotypic difference, considering leaf epidermal tissue, was in % of adaxial and abaxial epidermis. The highest found number of stomata per mm2 on both adaxial and abaxial epidermis was 40% higher than the lowest. During water stress, when stomata are closed, plant survival depends on the amount of water lost through the cuticle. SEM analysis of adaxial epidermis of the lamina show that cuticle varies in texture. Considering the observed genotypic variability in cuticle ornamentation and the fact that plants develop various strategies of adaptation to drought, finding genotypes with increased drought tolerance could be based on the characteristics of the cuticle and epidermis.