DOI: 10.7910/dvn/66p5md
title: Dataset on Effect of clonal integration on drought and waterlogging response in Urochloa humidicola

description: Clonal integration enables the translocation of resources such as water, nutrients, and photosynthates among individual subunits of clonal plants, facilitating adaptation to diverse environmental conditions, including drought and waterlogging. Urochloa humidicola CIAT 679 (cv. Tully) exhibits strong adaptation to these abiotic stresses and propagates efficiently through stolons, maintaining clonal integration among shoots across different generations. The dataset corresponds to a study aimed to evaluate whether clonal integration is one of the strategies that confers tolerance to drought and waterlogging in CIAT 679. This dataset includes response data from donor and recipient ramets of Urochloa humidicola CIAT 679 (cv. Tully). Recipient ramets were exposed to six treatments, representing interactions between three stress conditions—drought, control (no stress), and waterlogging—under two clonal integration conditions: with and without integration. Each treatment had six replicates. The dataset comprises weekly measurements over three weeks for stomatal conductance, transpiration, and SPAD values. Additionally, final measurements include relative water content, aboveground biomass, root biomass, total biomass, root-to-shoot ratio, and non-structural carbohydrate content. This dataset provides valuable insights into the mechanisms by which Urochloa humidicola cv. Tully responds to drought and waterlogging stress. The findings may support plant breeding efforts by identifying traits associated with improved resilience in this species.
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Methodology: Plant Material, Experimental Design, and Site Description: The planting material consisted of Urochloa humidicola CIAT 679 (cv. Tully) tillers weighing 70–80 g, measuring approximately 4–4.5 × 4–4.5 cm, with at least two actively growing shoots (donor ramet). The tillers were planted in pots containing 2.3 kg of vertisol soil with a sandy-loam texture, high fertility, and a pH of approximately 7.5. After three weeks of growth, the longest stolon was selected, and two nodes were buried in an adjacent pot to generate a new plant (recipient ramet), while all other stolons produced by the donor ramet were removed.The experiment followed a completely randomized factorial design (3 × 2). One factor was water stress condition: drought, control (no stress), and waterlogging, while the second factor was clonal integration between the donor and recipient ramet (with and without integration). The experimental unit consisted of a donor-recipient ramet pair, and each treatment (water stress × clonal integration interaction) had six replicates. The experiment was conducted in a glasshouse at the Las Américas campus of the Bioversity & CIAT Alliance, located in Palmira, Colombia. During the plant growth period, the environmental conditions within the glasshouse were as follows: temperature of 31.7/24.7 °C (day/night), relative humidity of 56.3/63.2% (day/night), and photosynthetically active radiation of 559.5 µmol m⁻² s⁻¹. Gas Exchange and SPAD Index: Stomatal conductance and transpiration rate were measured weekly using an LI-600 porometer (LI-COR, Lincoln, NE, USA). The SPAD index was assessed at the same frequency using a SPAD 502 Plus chlorophyll meter (Spectrum Technologies, Aurora, IL, USA). All measurements were taken on the third youngest fully expanded leaf in optimal nutritional and phytosanitary condition. Relative Water Content, Biomass Distribution, and Non-Structural Carbohydrates: A final destructive sampling was conducted 21 days after treatment initiation. The shoot and root were separated and dried in paper bags at 60 °C for 72 hours. The root-to-shoot ratio was calculated using the obtained biomass data. Relative water content was determined as the percentage of water present in a sample at a given time relative to the water content in a fully saturated leaf (Turner, 1981). Non-structural carbohydrates in leaf and stem tissues were quantified using the anthrone method described by Borrero Tamayo et al. (2017).