Effect of drought stress on some morphological traits of nine varieties of potato (Solanum tuberosum) produced by tissue culture.

Abstract

This research was carried out in the Plant Biotechnology Laboratory of the General Authority for Biotechnology in Damascus, and in the Faculty of Science - University of Damascus, during the period (2021-2023), with the aim of evaluating the response of nine introduced potato varieties to artificial stress using sorbitol, using plant tissue culture technology, Depending on some morphological characters to identify the most adapted varieties and the traits associated with improving the level of tolerance. Plants of nine potato varieties resulting from microvegetative propagation were transferred. Plants were treated by adding different concentrations of sorbitol (0, 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 350, 400 mM) to the growth medium. The experiment was designed according to completely randomized blocks. This research included 9

treatments; each treatment had 3 replicates. Significant differences were estimated at a 99% confidence level. The results showed that increasing the intensity of drought stress in the growth medium led to a significant decrease in all phenotypic traits studied (plant height, root length, number of leaves and roots, leaf area) compared to the control. The highest average plant height and number of leaves was in the cultivar Evora (8.67 cm, (leaves/plant respectively). As for the average leaf area, the Hind variety was superior (17626.37 mm2), while the Hind variety was superior in terms of the number of roots (6.03 roots/plant), and the Salvador variety was superior in terms of root length(4.25cm).