Role of the maternal effect phenomena in improving water stress tolerance in narrow‐leafed lupine (Lupinus angustifolius)

This paper describes experiments concerning improvement of drought tolerance in narrow‐leafed lupine (Lupinus angustifolius L.) by maternal effects. The first step involved harvesting seeds from plants exposed and not exposed to drought during flowering and seed ripening. The next‐generation plants grown from these seeds were exposed to drought and the effects of this stress on their physiological processes were examined. To find out whether drought applied to parent plants may affect tolerance to this stress in progeny plants such features as plant growth, tissue water content, abscisic acid concentration and yield‐related parameters were assessed. The study revealed that the progeny plants grown from the seeds of drought‐treated plants were more tolerant to this stress than the plants grown from the seeds harvested from optimally watered maternal plants. Drought tolerance was manifested by a reduced concentration of abscisic acid, increased plant height and maintaining high leaf water content. Most importantly, these plants produced significantly higher yield when exposed to drought than the plants grown from the seeds harvested from optimally watered plants.