TY  - JOUR
AU  - Vandoorne, B.
AU  - Mathieu, A.S.
AU  - Van den Ende, W.
AU  - Vergauwen, R.
AU  - Perilleux, C.
AU  - Javaux, M.
AU  - Lutts, S.
TI  - Water stress drastically reduces root growth and inulin yield in Cichorium intybus (var. sativum) independently of photosynthesis
JO  - The journal of experimental botany
VL  - 63
SN  - 0022-0957
CY  - Oxford
PB  - Univ. Press
M1  - PreJuSER-111950
SP  - 4359 - 4373
PY  - 2012
N1  - This work was supported by the Region Wallonne (DGTRE) of Belgium through the subventions D31-1062, D31-1123, and D31-1175 and by the Fonds National de la Recherche Scientifique (FNRS; convention no. 1.5.111.10F). The authors are also very grateful to FNRS for the PhD research grant of BV (Aspirant FNRS) and to B. Van Pee, B. Capelle, and H. Dailly (CARI-UCL) for their valuable technical assistance.
AB  - Root chicory (Cichorium intybus var. sativum) is a cash crop cultivated for inulin production in Western Europe. This plant can be exposed to severe water stress during the last 3 months of its 6-month growing period. The aim of this study was to quantify the effect of a progressive decline in water availability on plant growth, photosynthesis, and sugar metabolism and to determine its impact on inulin production. Water stress drastically decreased fresh and dry root weight, leaf number, total leaf area, and stomatal conductance. Stressed plants, however, increased their water-use efficiency and leaf soluble sugar concentration, decreased the shoot-to-root ratio and lowered their osmotic potential. Despite a decrease in photosynthetic pigments, the photosynthesis light phase remained unaffected under water stress. Water stress increased sucrose phosphate synthase activity in the leaves but not in the roots. Water stress inhibited sucrose:sucrose 1-fructosyltransferase and fructan:fructan 1 fructosyltransferase after 19 weeks of culture and slightly increased fructan 1-exohydrolase activity. The root inulin concentration, expressed on a dry-weight basis, and the mean degree of polymerization of the inulin chain remained unaffected by water stress. Root chicory displayed resistance to water stress, but that resistance was obtained at the expense of growth, which in turn led to a significant decrease in inulin production.
KW  - J (WoSType)
LB  - PUB:(DE-HGF)16
C6  - pmid:22577185
C2  - pmc:PMC3421980
UR  - <Go to ISI:>//WOS:000307821100005
DO  - DOI:10.1093/jxb/ers095
UR  - https://juser.fz-juelich.de/record/111950
ER  -