PSII fluorescence techniques for measurement of drought and high temperature stress signal in crop plants: Protocols and applications

Abstract

Field crops are frequently exposed to drought and high temperature in the field. As the stress tolerance is the major target of many research and breeding programmes, the efficient and reliable tools and methods useful in screening of the heat and drought stress effects are required. The techniques based on measurement of chlorophyll fluorescence induction belong recently to fundamentals of plant stress research; however, in most cases the very basic tools are used and its potential is not utilised sufficiently. This proposed chapter tries to summarise the knowledge, starting from basic theory through parameters and useful experimental protocols and results up to special kinds of application of chlorophyll fluorescence techniques. In addition to generally used pulse-amplitude-modulated (PAM) method with saturation pulse analysis, the fast fluorescence kinetics, the fluorescence imaging, as well as simultaneous measurements of chlorophyll fluorescence with other parameters and their potential application in drought and heat-stress research are discussed.