Quantifying Waterlogging Tolerance and Recovery Capacity of Jute Genotypes During Early Growth Stage Through...

Effective screening of genotypes for waterlogging tolerance and recovery capability is critical to mitigate waterlogging stress and support targeted breeding programs. This study was conducted to evaluate 70 tossa jute (Corchorus olitorius) genotypes at the seedling stage under 10, 12, and 14 days of waterlogging stress to identify variation in tolerance on the basis of seedling mortality. Fifteen genotypes with contrasting responses were subsequently subjected to detailed agronomic trait analysis under 14 days of continuous waterlogging stress, followed by 14 days of recovery after drainage. Significant genotypic variation was observed in seedling mortality, which increased with increasing stress duration, ranging from 0% to 20% in highly tolerant genotypes to 81%-100% in highly susceptible ones. Waterlogging stress and recovery conditions negatively affected shoot and root length, total length, the root-to-shoot ratio, and shoot and root fresh and dry weights. Comprehensive evaluation of waterlogging tolerance (CEVWT) and comprehensive evaluation of recovery tolerance (CEVRT) ranged from 0 to 1.0, reflecting a substantial variation among the genotypes. The waterlogging tolerance coefficient (WTC), CEVWT, waterlogging tolerance score (WTS), recovery tolerance coefficient (RTC), CEVRT, and recovery tolerance score (RTS) suggested that the CVL-1 and A-3539 genotypes were identified as highly waterlogging-tolerant with recovery capability, whereas A-2521 and O-9897 were highly sensitive with poor recovery potential. The significant positive correlations of WTS and RTS with different agronomic traits indicated that longer roots and shoots and higher seedling biomass are key contributing traits for waterlogging tolerance and recovery capacity. A significant positive correlation between WTS and RTS demonstrated that genotypes with higher tolerance during waterlogging stress also showed superior recovery potential. Therefore, the findings highlighted that selecting jute genotypes with longer roots and shoots, greater seedling biomass retention under waterlogging stress, and higher recovery after drainage are recommended to develop resilient jute varieties suitable for flood-prone environments.