Drought priming during the vegetative stage can enhance post-anthesis drought tolerance by improving photosynthetic capacity in winter wheat

Drought stress during the reproductive period of cereal crops leads to significant yield reductions, therefore, exploring effective methods to improve tolerance to post-anthesis drought is necessary. Pot experiment was carried out to investigate the effects of pre-drought priming on physiological characteristics and grain yield with drought stress at post-anthesis. Moderate water deficits (60-65% of the field capacity) were imposed to prime wheat plants during either the tillering or jointing stages, while severe drought stress (40-45% of the field capacity) was applied during the grain filling stage. The priming treatments significantly improved grain yield resulting in higher biomass. Compared to the control, the grain yield and biomass of the non-priming, tillering priming, and jointing priming treatments were reduced by 15.7, 9.1, and 9.3% and by 11.1, 6.1, and 10.5%, respectively. The primed plants exhibited higher adaptability to subsequent severe drought stress during grain filling, showing higher photosynthetic capacities and light use efficiencies with higher leaf water potentials, soluble protein contents, and Rubisco contents and enhanced enzymatic antioxidant systems. The tillering stage is more responsive to drought priming based on the observed grain yield. These results indicate that moderate drought during the vegetative period is conducive to the development of water-saving agriculture to cope drought stress during grain-filling in wheat.