Root Phenotyping For Drought Tolerance in Bean Landraces From Calabria (Italy)

Abstract

Common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris) is cultivated throughout Latin America and Africa, and for the European community, in Italy and Spain, areas are mainly subjected to drought stress which is predict to worsen by regional climatic models. The aims of this work were to identify the drought‐tolerant and drought‐sensitive bean landraces using drought tolerance and phenotypic plasticity indexes and to dissect the root morphological and 2D‐architecture traits related to drought tolerance. Thirty‐one landraces from diverse gene pools and areas of the Calabria region (South Italy), with different habits and morphological traits, were screened for drought tolerance in a hydroponic system. Root phenotyping was conducted by image analysis. Drought tolerance screening identified two landraces as drought tolerant and sensitive, respectively. Under drought stress, the drought‐tolerant landrace exhibited several interesting root traits such as a higher root length, surface area and, above all, the fineness of the whole root systems and, with emphasis, of the higher order roots. Drought stress induced plastic root responses in both bean landraces but with contrasting patterns. The drought‐tolerant landrace exhibited a dimorphic‐rooted strategy, which could be included in future utility for bean breeding programmes in drought‐prone environments.

Water Stress: Morphological and Anatomical Changes in Soybean (Glycine max L.) Plants

“…The reports indicated that drought tolerant variety displayed a more developed root vascular tissue system under stress conditions, when compared to the other non-transgenic cultivars. Differential root phenotype showing variations in root lengths, surface area and fineness of the root system was also reported by Abenavoli et al [63]. In soybean, stress tolerant genes were introduced and DREB or ARED genes expressed to show improved tolerance to water stress under greenhouse conditions [11,64].…”

Physiological and Biochemical Basis of Faba Bean Breeding for Drought Adaptation—A Review

“…Faba bean genotypes with extensive and prolific root characteristics usually exhibit drought tolerance [29]. A variability in the root characteristics and root-based phenotyping for drought tolerance was also found in cowpeas [69], chickpeas [65,70,71], lentils [72,73] and the common bean [74].…”

Drought tolerance indices for selection of drought tolerant, high yielding upland rice genotypes

“…Improvement of drought tolerance requires an understanding of plant diversity in relation to adaptation to drought (Alonso-Blanco et al, 2009), followed by design of the most effective selection strategy for plant survival and productivity under conditions of moisture-stress (Sarkar et al, 2013). Evaluation of genotypic variability under different moisture stress conditions is an essential step for a successful breeding program focused on drought tolerance (Abenavoli et al, 2016;Anower et al, 2015). A collection of pigmented upland rice germplasm from East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia has previously been evaluated for genetic diversity (Mau et al, 2017) and for resistance to blast (Mau et al, 2018).…”