Xylem Dysfunction under Drought in Crop Plants

The xylem is a structure for long distance transport of water in land plants.Once cavitation occurs in the xylem vessel lumen due to negative pressure,the xylem may loose its ablity of water transpot,In genaral this vulnerability,i.e.xylem dysfunction due to negative pressure,is considered to be related to plants adaptation to various water environments.It was found that crop plants such as rice and soybean had highly vulnerable xylem,and that the lost hydraulic condubtance under drought was not recovered fully at re-watering in rice.Additional research is needed to examine whether maintenance of xylem hydraulic conductance under drought may improve drought resistance in crop plants