ABSTRACT Identifying drought‐resilient and nutritionally robust crops is essential for climate‐smart agriculture, yet no study has simultaneously compared wheat with multiple pseudocereals under uniform long‐term water deficit. Here, we integrate phenological, physiological, agronomic, and biochemical analyses to evaluate drought responses in wheat, quinoa (QC and QB), amaranth (A13 and A55), and chia. Water deficit repressed growth across species, although QC showed delayed sensitivity. Yield responses revealed contrasting strategies: amaranth produced the highest absolute yield under drought despite large proportional losses, QB maintained stable yield, and chia experienced reproductive failure. Seed traits reflected these patterns, with protein content increasing only in water‐stressed chia and wheat. Amino acid and mineral profiles showed strong species‐specific adjustments, with chia accumulating exceptionally high mineral concentrations (calcium, copper, magnesium, phosphorus, sulfur, zinc), partly influenced by reduced seed filling. Antioxidant capacity was highest in quinoa and chia, whereas amaranth consistently showed the lowest values. PCA and correlation networks further distinguished quinoa and amaranth clusters from wheat and chia, revealing distinct metabolic coordination patterns under drought. Together, this integrative, multicrop assessment uncovers divergent resilience strategies and nutritional trade‐offs, providing novel comparative insights to guide breeding and the deployment of alternative crops in water‐limited agroecosystems.
Hassinger‐Lino et al. (Sun,) studied this question.