Biochemical assessment of the tolerance to soil drought of Virginia tobacco varieties.

Soil drought is among the serious problems in agriculture leading to considerable losses of crop production. Tobacco is important industrial crop, which is relatively sensitive to water deficit, and the selection of drought resistant varieties is of particular interest. In line with this, we examined the drought tolerance of three genotypes of flue-cured Virginia tobacco-cv. Coker 254 (American origin), line L 825 (Czech origin), which are introduced in Bulgaria, and their hybrid cv. Virzhinia 0514, which is certified as Bulgarian standard. The content of stress biomarkers malondialdehyde, hydrogen peroxide and free proline as well as some morphometric traits were assessed in plants subjected to three levels of drought. The results showed that the three tested tobacco genotypes were moderately tolerant to drought. These data can be used for selection and development of new genotypes with improved tolerance to soil drought. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]