Procedures for standard evaluation and data management of advanced potato clones. Summary guide to selecting potato clones for drought tolerance under field conditions international cooperators’ guide

Drought stress is a multidimensional stress and generally leads to changes in the physiological, morphological,
ecological, biochemical, and molecular traits of plants (Farooq et al., 2009). In addition, it can negatively affect
the quantity and quality of plant growth and yield (Zlatev and Lidon, 2012). Many plants have developed
resistance mechanisms to tolerate drought stress, but these mechanisms are varied and depend on plant species
(Hossain et al., 2016). There are several options for drought tolerance mechanisms in plants, including
developmental, physiological, morphological, ecological, biochemical, and molecular mechanisms. Typically, the
mechanisms involved in plant tolerance to drought follow a general plan: maintaining cell water homeostasis
under drought conditions (Hossain et al., 2016). Impact of abiotic stresses on potato production will increase
over the next decades, due to climate change and the extension of potato cultivation under drought/heat
conditions (Hijmanns, 2003) since potato is extremely susceptible to drought (Monneveux et al., 2013). Plant
adaptation to drought involves several different morphological and physiological characteristics; however, no
specific traits have been reported since drought responses change according to plant genotype and growth stage.
Stem height, number of green leaves and leaf length are considered to be the parameters most sensitive to
moderate drought conditions (Deblonde and Ledent, 2001); however, these traits have shown inconsistency in
many cases. In the present protocol, a selection of traits is shown as a result of previous experiments and
exhaustive data analysis at the International Potato Center.