Drought tolerance among accessions of eggplant and related species

Abstract

[EN] Adapting eggplant (Solanum melongena) cultivars to climate change requires the development of drought tolerant cultivars. In order to identify sources of variation for drought tolerance we have characterized nine accessions of eggplant and six of related species for tolerance to drought using a control with optimum irrigation and a drought treatment with a 50% reduction of irrigation. Many differences were found in the materials studied for the four parameters measured (leaf length and width, plant height and dry biomass). The materials with better performance have been S. elaeagnifolium and one accession of eggplant, while the most discriminant traits have been plant height and dry biomass. Overall, the results indicate that there is a large diversity in the germplasm of eggplant and related species for tolerance to drought.