The First Report of Drought Tolerance Assessment of Iranian Asparagus

Asparagus officinalis is the most economically important species of asparagus worldwide. Commercial cultivars of asparagus are susceptible to some biotic and abiotic stresses. Drought stress is one of the most common stresses in agricultural crops cultivation. The main purpose of the current study was to compare Iranian asparagus accessions drought tolerance rate with that of ‘Mary Washington’ commercial cultivar and introducing superior accessions in terms of dry resistance rate. A factorial experiment was laid out based on a completely randomized design with three replications. The factors were a) asparagus accession in 10 levels including nine wild accessions of Iranian asparagus and ‘Mary Washington’ commercial cultivar (as control) and b) drought stress in four levels including 0 (as control), 5, 10 and 15% (w/v polyethylene glycol). Results showed that highest values of percentage and speed of seed germination and lengths of radicle and plumule were recorded in Gazanak accession. The lowest values of radicle length were recorded in Chalaki and Shiraz accessions (6.19 and 8.01?mm, respectively). Calli of ‘Mary Washington’ cultivar under highest applied level of drought stress showed the lowest value of relative growth rate (11.53?mg/day). Cluster analysis based on assessed characteristics under different applied levels of drought stress, divided Iranian asparagus accessions into four groups at Euclidean distance of 2.0. In conclusion, obtained results showed that Iranian asparagus accessions especially Gazanak accession could be a good candidate to apply in asparagus breeding programs with aim of producing asparagus dry tolerant cultivars.