Does a terminal drought tolerance QTL contribute to differences in ROS scavenging enzymes and photosynthetic pigments in pearl millet exposed to drought?

▶ In this paper, we report on the genotypic differences and changes in several enzymes involved in the control of reactive oxygen species and in photosynthetic pigments under both water stress and well-watered conditions in pearl millet hybrids that differ for the presence or absence of a major terminal drought tolerance QTL. ▶ This paper brings controversy on the role of the anti-oxidant machinery, often proposed as having a key role in drought tolerance across several species, as we do not find any major difference between materials that are well known to contrast for terminal drought tolerance. We are very confident about our results because of the protocols we use and because we got similar conclusion in other similar work in groundnut (Bhatnagar-Mathur et al., 2009). We have not been “lucky” in a previous submission to another journal, where these “negative” results were considered enough for rejection. ▶ Rather, we think this work brings a lot of novelty and a different view on the role of ROS scavenging enzymes on drought tolerance. The “weight” of our data is that we use pearl millet, a well-known drought tolerant species, we use near isogenic lines introgressed with a terminal drought tolerance QTL, and we use protocols that allow a strict control of the soil water content and therefore comparable levels of stress across plant materials.