Chlorophyll stability is an indicator of drought tolerance in peanut

Chlorophyll stability during drought might be a promising criterion for selection for drought resistance in peanut. The study describes two field trials conducted at Khon Kaen University, Thailand which investigate genotype × drought interactions in a wide range of peanut germplasm in general and assess the relationship between chlorophyll stability and genotypic performance in particular, under drought. Two field experiments (during 2003/2004 and 2004/2005 dry seasons) were conducted in a split plot design with three water regimes [field capacity, 2/3 available water (AW) and 1/3 AW] as main, and 12 peanut genotypes as subtreatments, replicated four times. Observations on total dry matter (TDM), chlorophyll density (ChlD) (chlorophyll content per unit leaf area), chlorophyll content (chlorophyll content per plant) and SPAD chlorophyll meter readings (SCMR) were recorded at 30, 60 and 90 days after emergence. Transpiration (T) and transpiration efficiency (TE) were computed using the data on amount of water input and TDM. Drought stress significantly reduced TDM, T and chlorophyll content across genotypes but significantly increased TE and ChlD in peanut. However, there were significant differences among genotypes for TE and chlorophyll parameters. The genotype × drought interaction effects for chlorophyll characters (content and density) were not significant suggesting a strong genetic effect. The correlation coefficients between TDM and chlorophyll content (r = 0.51, P = 0.01 to r = 0.91, P = 0.01) and between TE and ChlD (r = 0.46, P = 0.05 to r = 0.77, P = 0.01) were positive and significant. These findings suggest that chlorophyll parameters are strongly linked with drought tolerance in peanut. There were highly significant and positive relationships between ChlD and SCMR (r = 0.67, P = 0.01 to r = 0.93, P = 0.01), between SCMR and TE (r = 0.41, P = 0.05 to r = 0.80, P = 0.01) suggesting that SCMR could be used as a tool for rapid assessment of relative chlorophyll status in peanut genotypes as well as for the indirect selection of drought tolerance in peanut.