Turkish Journal of Botany
Abstract
Waterlogging severely restricts growth and productivity in alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.), necessitating effective strategies to improve stress tolerance. This study investigated whether drought priming or waterlogging priming could enhance tolerance to subsequent waterlogging stress in the alfalfa cultivar “Bilensoy-80”. Plants were subjected to drought priming, waterlogging priming, or no priming prior to progressive waterlogging stress for 0, 4, 8, 12, 16, and 20 days. Waterlogging priming consistently alleviated growth inhibition, maintained chlorophyll content, and reduced oxidative damage under prolonged stress. Drought priming was associated with partial cross-tolerance, particularly through improved root growth, plant water status, and oxidative stress responses, although its effects were less pronounced than those of waterlogging priming. Overall, the results suggest that priming-associated stress memory may enhance adaptive responses to subsequent waterlogging stress in alfalfa, and that drought priming may contribute to improved tolerance in this regard. These results highlight priming as a promising and low-cost approach to improving the resilience of forage crops under flood-prone conditions.
DOI
10.55730/1300-008X.3012
Keywords
Abiotic stress, cross-tolerance, forage crops, oxidative stress, stress memory
First Page
473
Last Page
482
Publisher
The Scientific and Technological Research Council of Türkiye (TÜBİTAK)
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Recommended Citation
DEMİRKOL, G, & KARA, N (2026). Drought priming improves waterlogging tolerance in alfalfa, but less effectively than waterlogging priming. Turkish Journal of Botany 50 (5): 473-482. https://doi.org/10.55730/1300-008X.3012
