Experimental Design to Determine Drought Stress Response and Early Leaf Senescence in Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.)

Premature leaf senescence induced by drought stress is a main factor for yield losses in barley. Research in drought stress tolerance has become more important as due to climate change the number of drought periods will increase and tolerance to drought stress has become a goal of high interest in barley breeding. However, reliable screening for drought stress tolerance is still a difficult task. This protocol describes the experimental design for the phenotyping for drought stress tolerance and early leaf senescence in the juvenile stage of barley (A) and the determination of six physiological parameters involved in drought tolerance and leaf senescence (B to G) according to Wehner et al., (2015).