Field scale plant water relation of maize (Zea mays) under drought – impact of root hairs and soil texture

Jorda, Helena; Ahmed, Mutez Ali; Javaux, Mathieu; Carminati, Andrea; Vetterlein, Doris; Duddek, Patrick; Vanderborght, Jan

doi:10.21203/rs.3.rs-1543131/v1

Cited by 3 publications

References 54 publications

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Root hairs matter at field scale for maize shoot growth and nutrient uptake, but root trait plasticity is primarily triggered by texture and drought

et al. 2022

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Aims Root hairs are important for uptake, especially for nutrients with low mobility in soils with high sorption capacity. Mutants with defective root hairs are expected to have lower nutrient uptake, unless they compensate with more root growth. Since root hairs can also contribute to the plant's water uptake their importance could change over the course of a growing season. It was our objective to investigate the role of root hairs under field conditions. Methods The root hair mutant rth3 of Zea mays and the corresponding wild-type were grown for two years under field conditions on sand and loam. Results Shoot growth and P and K uptake of the plants were promoted by the presence of hairs at all growth stages. Differences between genotypes were greater on loam than on sand until tassel emergence, presumably as additional exploitation by hairs is more relevant in loam. Compensation for the absence of root hairs by increased root growth was not observed in absolute terms. The root to shoot ratio was higher for rth3 than for wild-type. Root traits showed high plasticity in response to texture, the most salient being a greater mean root diameter in sand, irrespective of genotype. The mechanism causing the increase in mean root diameter is still unknown. Root length density was higher in sand, which can be explained by a greater need for exploration than exploitation in this substrate. Conclusion The role of hairs for nutrient uptake could be confirmed under field conditions. The large impact of texture on root growth and consequences for carbon balance require further investigations.

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Root hairs matter at field scale for maize shoot growth and nutrient uptake, but root trait plasticity is primarily triggered by texture and drought

et al. 2022

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Development of mechanical soil stability in an initial homogeneous loam and sand planted with two maize (Zea mays L.) genotypes with contrasting root hair attributes under in-situ field conditions

2022

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Purpose Soil structure evolving from physical and biological processes is closely related to soil mechanical characteristics and texture. We studied the influence of substrate and genotype on the initial development of mechanical traits, differences between depths, and changes over the course of two years in the field. Methods Plots were homogeneously filled with a loam and a sand and planted with two maize (Zea mays L.) genotypes (wild type (WT) and rth3 mutant) with contrasting root hair attributes. Undisturbed soil cores were taken in 2019 and 2020 at 14 and 34 cm depth. Confined uniaxial compression tests were performed to determine pre-compression stress (σpc), compressibility (Cc, Cs) and elasticity index (EI). Mechanical energy was calculated based on penetration resistance (PR) tests with a penetrometer needle resembling root geometries. Results σpc, Cc and Cs were significantly higher in loam as compared to sand, whereas the factor genotype proved to be negligible. Over time, σpc increased and Cc decreased in loam from 2019 to 2020 and Cs declined in both substrates. Higher mechanical energies were observed in loam and partially in WT. Required energy was higher at 14 cm than at 34 cm depth and decreased from 2019 to 2020 in sand. Airdry sand samples required four times as much energy than those at matric potential (Ψm) of -50 kPa. Conclusion For the development of the mechanical traits examined texture proved to be the dominating factor and changes in soil stability could be observed within a short period of time.

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Early root architectural traits and their relationship with yield inIpomoea batatasL

Duque,

Hoffman,

Pecota

et al. 2023

Preprint

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Root system architecture in storage root crops are an important component of plant growth and yield performance that has received little attention by researchers because of the inherent difficulties posed by in-situ root observation. Sweetpotato (Ipomoea batatas L.) is an important climate-resilient storage root crop of worldwide importance for both tropical and temperate regions, and identifying genotypes with advantageous root phenotypes and improved root architecture to facilitate breeding for improved storage root yield and quality characteristics in both high and low input scenarios would be beneficial. We evaluated 38 diverse sweetpotato genotypes for early root architectural traits and correlated a subset of these with storage root yield. Early root architectural traits were scanned and digitized using the RhizoVision Explorer software system. Significant genotypic variation was detected for all early root traits including root mass, total root length, root volume, root area and root length by diameter classes. Based on the values of total root length, we separated the 38 genotypes into three root sizes (small, medium, and large). Principal component analysis identified four clusters, primarily defined by shoot mass, root volume, root area, root mass, total root length and root length by diameter class. Average total and marketable yield and number of storage roots, was assessed on a subset of eight genotypes in the field. Several early root traits were positively correlated with total yield, marketable yield, and number of storage roots. These results suggest that root traits, particularly total root length and root mass could improve yield potential and should be incorporated into sweetpotato ideotypes. To help increase sweetpotato performance in challenging environments, breeding efforts may benefit through the incorporation of early root phenotyping using the idea of integrated root phenotypes.

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Field scale plant water relation of maize (Zea mays) under drought – impact of root hairs and soil texture

Cited by 3 publications

References 54 publications

Root hairs matter at field scale for maize shoot growth and nutrient uptake, but root trait plasticity is primarily triggered by texture and drought

Root hairs matter at field scale for maize shoot growth and nutrient uptake, but root trait plasticity is primarily triggered by texture and drought

Development of mechanical soil stability in an initial homogeneous loam and sand planted with two maize (Zea mays L.) genotypes with contrasting root hair attributes under in-situ field conditions

Early root architectural traits and their relationship with yield inIpomoea batatasL

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