Leaf responses to drought stress in Mediterranean accessions of Solanum lycopersicum: anatomical adaptations in relation to gas exchange parameters

ABSTRACT In a previous study, important acclimation to water stress was observed in the Ramellet tomato cultivar (TR) from the Balearic Islands, related to an increase in the water‐use efficiency through modifications in both stomatal (gs) and mesophyll conductances (gm). In the present work, the comparison of physiological and morphological traits between TR accessions grown with and without water stress confirmed that variability in the photosynthetic capacity was mostly explained by differences in the diffusion of CO2 through stomata and leaf mesophyll. Maximization of gm under both treatments was mainly achieved through adjustments in the mesophyll thickness and porosity and the surface area of chloroplasts exposed to intercellular airspace (Sc). In addition, the lower gm/Sc ratio for a given porosity in drought‐acclimated plants suggests that the decrease in gm was due to an increased cell wall thickness. Stomatal conductance was also affected by drought‐associated changes in the morphological properties of stomata, in an accession and treatment‐dependent manner. The results confirm the presence of advantageous physiological traits in the response to drought stress in Mediterranean accessions of tomato, and relate them to particular changes in the leaf anatomical properties, suggesting specific adaptive processes operating at the leaf anatomical level. The Balearic ‘Ramellet’ tomato cultivar showed acclimation to drought stress based on increased water use efficiency, resulting from the modification of stomatal and mesophyll (gm) conductances. In this work, we found that reasons behind gm increases are related to modification of mesophyll thickness and porosity, surface area of chloroplasts exposed to intercellular airspace (Sc) and gm/Sc ratio. Since that, leaf anatomical modifications, rather than biochemical factors, underlie physiological acclimation to water stress in ‘Ramellet’.