An insight into drought resilience in three cohabiting mosses

Drought stress is one of the critical abiotic stresses and it severely affects plant growth and development. Mosses, have an ability to pass in and out of physiological inactivity (anabiosis), which makes them a suitable plant group for drought stress studies. In this study, we investigated the differences in drought resistance among three phylogenetically distant but cohabiting moss species, namely Pleurozium schreberi, Polytrichum formosum and Rhytidiadelphus squarrosus under simulation of drought caused by PEG600, as inferred by the ion leakage, relative water content (RWC) and membrane stability as inferred by lipid peroxidation status. These parameters enable the understanding of the drought stress tolerance capacity and to determine drought resilience of the three selected moss species. Polytrichum formosum seems to tolerate the drought stress better than the other two mosses. It is also statistically supported that its membranes are less damaged, compared to other two tested species.