Drought-tolerant lines of Physalis angulata L. improved growth, yield and water use efficiency in drylands

Cutleaf groundcherry (Physalis angulata L.) has the potential to be developed in various areas, including dryland. Information on drought-tolerant varieties, lines or genotypes is needed for the development of cutleaf groundcherry in dryland. Selecting drought-tolerant lines is an alternative for alleviating yield loss potency caused by water shortages. A pot experiment that aimed to investigate the response of cutleaf groundcherry lines to a different level of water deficit, expressed in field capacity (FC), was run in two factors of factorial randomized block design. Each line (PA-01, PA-03, PA-05, PA-08) was set up in water deficit treatment (100, 80, 60, 40, and 20% FC). The result showed that vegetative growth and fruit production, such as fruit number and weight, mainly decreased at 60 or 40 % FC. In contrast, TSS increased at a higher water deficit which was in line with total flavonoid content, even inconsistently. PA-03 and PA-08 experienced a reduction in fruit weight at 40% FC, whereas other lines occurred at 60% FC. Water use efficiency (WUE) increased under severe water stress. Compared to other lines, PA-03 and PA-08 exhibit higher WUE at 60% FC. In conclusion, PA-03 and PA-08 lines were tolerant of water deficit.