Abstract
Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is the staple food source for over 850million people worldwide. Cassava contains cyanogenic glucosides and can be toxic to humans, causing paralysing diseases such as konzo, and even death if not properly processed. Konzo epidemics are often associated with times of drought. This may be due to a greater reliance on cassava as it is drought tolerant, but it may also be due to an increase in cyanogenic glucosides. Episodic droughts are forecast to become more common in many cassava-growing regions. We therefore sought to quantify the effect of water-stress on both yield and cyanogenic glucoside concentration (CNc) in the developing tubers of cassava. Five-month-old plants were grown in a glasshouse and either well watered or droughted for 28 days. A subset of droughted plants was re-watered half way through the experiment. Droughted plants had 45% fewer leaves and lower tuber yield, by 83%, compared with well-watered plants. CNc was 2.9-fold higher in the young leaves of droughted plants, whereas CNc in tubers from droughted plants was 4-fold greater than in tubers from well-watered plants. Re-watered plants had a similar biomass to control plants, and lower CNc than droughted plants. These findings highlight the important link between food quality and episodic drought.
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Claims 6
Claim · model-written summary
Droughted cassava plants had 45% fewer leaves than well-watered plants.
- Taxon
- cassava
Manihot esculentat0 - Treatment
- Droughtede0
- Outcome
- leavese0
- Direction
- fewere0
- Value
- 45%e0
- Comparator
- well-watered plantse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz)”
e0“Droughted plants had 45% fewer leaves and lower tuber yield, by 83%, compared with well-watered plants”
Claim · model-written summary
Droughted cassava plants had 83% lower tuber yield than well-watered plants.
- Taxon
- cassavaManihot esculentat0
- Treatment
- Droughtede0
- Outcome
- tuber yielde0
- Direction
- lowere0
- Value
- 83%e0
- Comparator
- well-watered plantse0
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz)”
e0“Droughted plants had 45% fewer leaves and lower tuber yield, by 83%, compared with well-watered plants”
Claim · model-written summary
CNc was 2.9-fold higher in the young leaves of droughted cassava plants.
- Taxon
- cassavaManihot esculentat0
- Organ / stage
- young leavese1
- Treatment
- droughted plantse1
- Outcome
- CNce1
- Direction
- highere1
- Value
- 2.9-folde1
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz)”
e1“CNc was 2.9-fold higher in the young leaves of droughted plants”
Claim · model-written summary
CNc in tubers of droughted cassava plants was 4-fold greater than in tubers of well-watered plants.
- Taxon
- cassavaManihot esculentat0
- Organ / stage
- tuberse2
- Treatment
- droughted plantse2
- Outcome
- CNc in tuberse2
- Direction
- greatere2
- Value
- 4-folde2
- Comparator
- tubers from well-watered plantse2
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz)”
e2“CNc in tubers from droughted plants was 4-fold greater than in tubers from well-watered plants”
Claim · model-written summary
Re-watered cassava plants had a biomass similar to control plants.
- Taxon
- cassavaManihot esculentat0
- Treatment
- Re-waterede3
- Outcome
- biomasse3
- Direction
- no_changeinferrede3
- Comparator
- control plantse3
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz)”
e3“Re-watered plants had a similar biomass to control plants”
Claim · model-written summary
Re-watered cassava plants had lower CNc than droughted plants.
- Taxon
- cassavaManihot esculentat0
- Treatment
- Re-waterede3
- Outcome
- CNce4
- Direction
- lowere4
- Comparator
- droughted plantse4
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.
Verbatim
t0“cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz)”
e3“Re-watered plants had a similar biomass to control plants”
e4“and lower CNc than droughted plants”
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