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September 7, 2026
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Stronger drought tolerance in C4 compared with C3 grass crops is achieved via both avoidance and resistance strategies

Publicated to: JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BOTANY. - 2026-09-07, DOI: 10.1093/jxb/erag393

Authors:

Boisseaux, Marion; Nadal, Miquel; Albuquerque, Caetano; Gomez, Jesse; Garcia, Larissa; Amitrano, Chiara; Browne, Marvin; McElrone, Andrew J; Sack, Lawren; Scoffoni, Christine
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Affiliations

Calif State Univ Los Angeles, Dept Biol Sci, Los Angeles, CA 90032 USA - Author
Calif State Univ, Dept Biol Agr & Chem, 100 Campus Ctr, Seaside, CA 93955 USA - Author
Ctr Invest & Tecnol Agroalimentaria Aragon CITA, Dept Sistemas Agr Forestales & Medio Ambiente, Zaragoza, Spain - Author
Stanford Univ, Dept Earth Syst Sci, Stanford, CA 94305 USA - Author
Univ Calif Davis, Dept Viticulture & Enol, Davis, CA 95616 USA - Author
Univ Calif Los Angeles, Dept Ecol & Evolutionary Biol, Los Angeles, CA 90095 USA - Author
Univ Lorraine, AgroParisTech, INRAE, UMR Silva, Nancy, France - Author
Univ Naples Federico II, Dept Agr Sci, I-80055 Portici, Naples, Italy - Author
USDA ARS, Crops Pathol & Genet Res Unit, Davis, CA 95616 USA - Author
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Abstract

Grasses comprise many of the world's major cereal crops, yet the physiological mechanisms underlying their resilience to environmental stress remain unclear. While C(4 )grasses tend to display higher water-use efficiency than C(3 )grasses, little is known about the underlying physiological and structural dynamics during mild and severe dehydration. We tested the sequence of decline with dehydration in leaf, root, and whole-plant hydraulic functions, and in leaf gas exchange and photochemistry (F-v/F-m) across three C(3 )and three C(4 )grass crop species, along with their rehydration capacity post-dehydration. We observed distinct strategies between the C(3 )and C(4 )species in response to water stress. The three C(4 )species experienced their peak intrinsic water-use efficiency earlier during dehydration, displayed greater hydraulic supply relative to demand, and had higher turgor loss points. The three C(4 )species also showed greater resistance to photochemical damage and embolism under severe dehydration. The three C(4 )species had higher leaf capacitance, and experienced greater leaf shrinkage than the three C(3 )species. Our findings reveal that variation among photosynthetic types can be associated with contrasts in both drought avoidance and resistance traits, contributing to a broader understanding of how different photosynthetic pathways influence plant performance under stress.
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Keywords

Clean water and sanitationCultivos de cerealesEficacia en el uso del aguaEstrés de sequiaFotosíntesisGramineasSequíaTolerancia a la sequia

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL BOTANY due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2026, it was in position 25/286, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Plant Sciences. Notably, the journal is positioned above the 90th percentile.

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Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2026-11-15:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 1.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 2 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 7.

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

Continuing with the social impact of the work, it is important to emphasize that, due to its content, it can be assigned to the area of interest of ODS 6 - Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all, with a probability of 64% according to the mBERT algorithm developed by Aurora University.
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Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: France; Italy; United States of America.

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Awards linked to the item

This work was supported by the National Science Foundation (CAREER grant #1943583). MN was supported by the Fulbright Scholar Program (Scholarship grant FRLK-2021 co-sponsored by the International Institute in Spain).
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