Ogbaga, C.C., Athar, H.-U.-R., Amir, M. et al. (3 more authors) (2020) Clarity on frequently asked questions about drought measurements in plant physiology. Scientific African, 8. e00405. ISSN 2468-2276
Abstract
Drought, or environmental water deficit, is one of the major limiting factors affecting crop yield worldwide. Development of drought-resistant crop cultivars is a major research and development challenge. Drought-related experiments are performed usually to understand the physiological and molecular mechanisms of drought tolerance. Such experiments are also performed to develop transgenics or crop cultivars resistant to drought using physiological and molecular markers. Drought-related experiments are executed in growth chambers, growth rooms, greenhouses, wire net-houses or in research fields. However, a plethora of research publications investigating drought has experimental weaknesses and flaws with respect to the approaches used. It is, therefore, necessary for agronomists, plant breeders, plant physiologists, and molecular biologists to be aware of common pitfalls and have the minimum knowledge required for drought measurements. There are several questions that are often asked by students and professionals alike, and these questions often appear on academic social media platforms. This article summarises the questions we have been asked about drought measurements personally and those asked on academic social media platforms. It also addresses ambiguous questions arising from published literature. We aim to respond to them to the best of our knowledge in order to provide a reference point for a beginner interested in performing drought-related experiments. This article will only focus on drought in relation to plant physiology and will not cover the usage of the term or drought measurements in other contexts.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of African Institute of Mathematical Sciences / Next Einstein Initiative. This is an open access article under the CC BY license. (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) |
Keywords: | Drought; Photosynthesis; Plant stress; Questions |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Science (Sheffield) > School of Biosciences (Sheffield) > Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 24 Sep 2020 10:33 |
Last Modified: | 24 Sep 2020 10:33 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Elsevier BV |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1016/j.sciaf.2020.e00405 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:165941 |