Effects of combined drought and shade stress on morpho-physiological traits and gene expression in Cynodon dactylon along longitude and latitudinal gradients

Sep 29, 2026

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Common bermudagrass endangerment motivates research on conserving resources and improving ecological use. This study investigated how combined drought and shade affect Cynodon dactylon growth and provide a theoretical basis for managing and developing tolerant accessions. Stolons of 13 genotypes were grown under control or combined drought + shade for 30 days in a Yangzhou University greenhouse, then morphological, physiological, and biochemical indices were measured after exposure to 50% shade and 50% water deficit. Interaction patterns identified G5 (longitude) and G10 (latitude) as most tolerant and G2 and G11 as most susceptible. Higher latitudes showed stronger tolerance, while longitude gradients showed weaker or null indicator responses.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages21

Reading Time53 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Background on grasslands and climate change

Relevance of Cynodon dactylon and stress sensitivity

Drought effects on physiology and adaptation

Light limitation and shade effects

Noor etal. BMC Plant Biology (2026) 26:21 [https://doi.org/10.1186/s12870-025-07662-9](https://doi.org/10.1186/s12870-025-07662-9) BMC Plant Biology RESEARCH Open Access Effects of combined drought and shade stress on morpho-physiological traits and gene expression in Cynodon dactylon along longitude and latitudinal gradients Maryam Noor 1†, Shixuan jin 1†, Muhammad Tanveer Akhtar2, Zhiwei Li 1, Ran Zhang 1, Muhammad Kaleem3, Usman Nazir 1, Zhao Guoqi 1 and Xuebing Yan 1* Abstract Currently, the endangerment of common bermudagrass gains an attention on the protection and ecological utilization of its resources. Bermudagrass grows as lawn and wild grass normally faces limited light and water deficit conditions. Thus, the main goal of the current study was determination of combined effects of drought and shade on Cynodon dactylon growth, meanwhile providing a theoretical framework for the management and development of tolerant accessions. In current study, stolons of 13 Cynodon dactylon genotypes were established under two treatments (control and combined drought + shade) and three replicates of each treatment on 9th of May 2024, for 30 days in the greenhouse of Yangzhou University Jiangsu China. After 30 days, plants were exposed to combined stressor as 50% shade created with a black net and 50% drought stress. After one month of treatment, the morphological, physiological and biochemical indices were measured under combined stress. The combined drought + shade interaction revealed the most-tolerant genotypes “G5” along longitude and “G10” along latitude gradients, while most-susceptible as “G2” and “G11” along longitude and latitudinal gradients, respectively. It was noticed that the genotypes of high latitudes showed strong stress tolerance due to the unfavorable environmental conditions. Such as low precipitation, insufficient water, sunlight and low temperature, while the longitude gradients with suitable annual rainfall, precipitation and temperature does not affect plant growth more significantly under combined stress conditions. The higher the latitude, the smaller the effect of stress will be. The regional difference of longitude gradient is not clear because several indicators showed null or less response against stress. Overall, the result suggests that under 50% shading and 50% water deficit treatment most-tolerant Cynodon dactylon genotypes showed better growth. Keywords Combined stress, Shade, Drought, Cynodon dactylon, Gene expression, Longitude gradient, Latitudes †Maryam Noor and Shixuan jin contributed equally to this work. *Correspondence: Xuebing Yan[yxbbjzz@163.com](yxbbjzz@163.com) 1College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009, China 2College of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009, China 3Department of Botany, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad 38040, Pakistan © The Author(s) 2025. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit [http://creati](http://creati)[vecommons.org/l](vecommons.org/l)icense

FAQs

What treatments were applied to Cynodon dactylon in this study?

Stolons of 13 genotypes were established under a control treatment and a combined drought + shade treatment. After 30 days, plants were exposed to 50% shade using a black net together with 50% drought stress for one month.

Which genotypes were identified as most tolerant and most susceptible?

Under combined stress, the most-tolerant genotypes were G5 along longitude and G10 along latitude gradients. The most-susceptible genotypes were G2 and G11 along longitude and latitudinal gradients, respectively.

How did latitude and longitude gradients influence stress tolerance?

Genotypes from higher latitudes showed stronger stress tolerance, attributed to unfavorable conditions such as low precipitation, insufficient water, reduced sunlight, and lower temperature. In contrast, longitude gradient differences were less clear because several indicators showed null or weaker responses under combined stress.

Sep 29, 2026

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