Different photosynthetic adaptation of Zoysia spp. under shading: shade avoidance and shade tolerance response

Reduction of ambient solar radiation is an important external challenge for plants, which affects photosynthesis and morphogenesis in agroforestry or gardening. As bottomed sessile organisms, turfgrasses have a set of sophisticated photosynthetic strategies to survive and deal with this abiotic stress. Zoysiagrass (Zoysia spp. Willd.) is an important warm-season, perennial turfgrass that tolerates adversity, wear, trampling and extensive management. However, whole photosynthetic characteristics reaction of the zoysiagrass to shade stress have not been described because our knowledge in this area is very limited. In this study, 85% shade treatment was applied to nineteen zoysiagrass genotypes, and morphological observations and extensive determinations on plant heights, photosynthetic pigments, fluorescence dynamic curves among other parameters were made. The results showed that vegetal and photosynthetic responses of zoysiagrass were affected by shade treatment to varying degrees. Further analysis based on the principal component, subordinate function analysis and clustering methodology revealed that different shading response strategies were adopted by zoysia under shade surroundings. They were divided into four categories. The strongest shade-avoidant response strategy was adopted by ‘ZG48’ and ‘WZG59’, which had the largest comprehensive evaluation (D) values, and the stabilized shade-tolerant response was taken on by ‘ZG-3’ and ‘ZG64’, which had the lowest D values. Other varieties applied a medium strategy but with a certain tendency. These findings provide new insights into different shading response tactics of turfgrass: shade avoidance and shade tolerance response, which could be selected for further elucidation of the molecular mechanism of plant adaptation to shade environments.