a study of the stomatal characteristics in fig cultivars under drought stress conditions

there are about two of millions rainfed fig trees in estahban. this main location of iran rainfed production is faced with death and destruction as a result of recent droughts and since rain is the only source of water supplied to the trees in rain-fed conditions. the effects of different levels of water stress on the plants stomata and guard cell response were investigated throughout this work. the experiment was laid out as a 4×4 factorial in a complete randomized design of three replicates. treatments were comprised of: four fig cultivars (sabz, shah-anjir, siah and matti) along with four levels of irrigation: control with enough water supplying pots (100% of field capacity), mild stress (75% of f.c), medium stress (50% of f.c) and severe stress (25% of f.c). the results indicated that the length, width and size of stoma and length, width and size of stoma guard cells were different at different levels of stress and decreased in severe stress treatments. the study revealed that the mere anatomical changes that are caused by periodic drought can not be determinative of the difference between cultivars.