TY  - JOUR
A1  - Du, Baoguo
A1  - Ma, Yuhua
A1  - Yáñez‐Serrano, Ana Maria
A1  - Arab, Leila
A1  - Fasbender, Lukas
A1  - Alfarraj, Saleh
A1  - Albasher, Gadah
A1  - Hedrich, Rainer
A1  - White, Philip J.
A1  - Werner, Christiane
A1  - Rennenberg, Heinz
T1  - Physiological responses of date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) seedlings to seawater and flooding
JF  - New Phytologist
N2  - In their natural environment along coast lines, date palms are exposed to seawater inundation and, hence, combined stress by salinity and flooding.

To elucidate the consequences of this combined stress on foliar gas exchange and metabolite abundances in leaves and roots, date palm seedlings were exposed to flooding with seawater and its major constituents under controlled conditions.

Seawater flooding significantly reduced CO\(_{2}\) assimilation, transpiration and stomatal conductance, but did not affect isoprene emission. A similar effect was observed upon NaCl exposure. By contrast, flooding with distilled water or MgSO\(_{4}\) did not affect CO\(_{2}\)/H\(_{2}\)O gas exchange or stomatal conductance significantly, indicating that neither flooding itself, nor seawater sulfate, contributed greatly to stomatal closure. Seawater exposure increased Na and Cl contents in leaves and roots, but did not affect sulfate contents significantly. Metabolite analyses revealed reduced abundances of foliar compatible solutes, such as sugars and sugar alcohols, whereas nitrogen compounds accumulated in roots.

Reduced transpiration upon seawater exposure may contribute to controlling the movement of toxic ions to leaves and, therefore, can be seen as a mechanism to cope with salinity. The present results indicate that date palm seedlings are tolerant towards seawater exposure to some extent, and highly tolerant to flooding.
KW  - compatible solutes and other metabolites
KW  - date palm
KW  - flooding
KW  - salinity
KW  - shoot–root interaction
KW  - stomatal conductance
KW  - sulfate
Y1  - 2021
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-228226
VL  - 229
IS  - 6
SP  - 3318
EP  - 3329
ER  -