Abstract
Proline may be important in the resistance to adverse, abiotic factors found in quinoa (Chenopodium quinoaWilld.). In order to study the variation of proline content in quinoa and its relation to the environment, experiments were conducted with six varieties in two localities in Puno, Peru (Muyapampa-Julí, 3815 masl; and Alto Catacha-Lampa, 3890 masl) during the 1997–1998 growing season. The experiments included two repetitions, with dry or humid canals of the high beds (waru warus). The relation between the quinoa varieties and the localities under study was established according to the Finlay-Wilkinson method ([1963]), using four environmental indicators and the variety average. The results showed that proline content increased as environmental conditions became less favorable to the plants. In the dry environment of Alto Catacha, the proline content was higher than in the other environments, and in the cold Suni agroecological zone, with high temperature deviations between day and night, the proline content was higher than close to Lake Titicaca. The Wariponcho and CRIDER2 varieties from the Suni agroecological zone surpassed the others in terms of proline content (0.64 and 0.55 μg/g, respectively), whereas the Kamiri variety from northern Bolivia had the lowest proline content (0.36 μg/g). The CRIDER2 and Wariponcho varieties showed good adaptability to the most adverse environmental conditions, whereas Salcedo INIA would have serious problems adapting to areas outside its agroecological lake zone. The results indicate that the level of proline in the tissue is controlled by environmental conditions.