Root Traits, Nodulation and Root Distribution in Soil for Five Wild Lentil Species and Lens culinaris (Medik.) Grown under Well-Watered Conditions

Abstract

The efficient use of resources such as water and nutrients by plants is increasingly important as the world population food demand continues to grow. With the increased production of lentil in the temperate zones of North America, improvement in yield needs to be maintained. The use of wild lentil genotypes as sources of genetic diversity for introgression into cultivated lentil is an important breeding strategy, but little is known about their root systems. We evaluated the root systems of five wild lentil species and Lens culinaris under fully watered conditions. Plants were grown in 60 cm tubes containing equal volumes of soil collected from the reconstructed A, B, and C horizons. Significant differences were observed for root traits and fine root distribution between and within species and the proportion of root biomass partitioned into each soil layer was unique for each genotype. We also observed variability in nodule number and nodule shape within and between genotypes. Some genotypes more efficiently used water for either biomass or seed production. The allocation of resources to seed production also varied between genotypes. These observations could have impact on the design of future lentil breeding in the context of strategies for managing changes in rainfall amount and distribution for lentil production ecosystems.

Potential and limits of exploitation of crop wild relatives for pea, lentil, and chickpea improvement

“…orientalis (Ferguson et al, 1998; Gupta & Sharma, 2006). Variation in root traits, including nodulation and root distribution in soil differences, were discovered in wild Lens taxon ( L. orientalis , L. tomentosus , L. odemensis , L. lamottei , L. ervoides ) that may be useful for breeding increased biomass or seed production (Gorim & Vandenberg, 2017a). Identification of novel sources of extra earliness from a wild accession, ILWL118, having less than 90 days maturity has resulted in the development of extra early breeding lines.…”

Genetic variation for root architectural traits in response to phosphorus deficiency in mungbean at the seedling stage

“…We found the significant variation, medium to high heritability, approximately normal distribution and significant correlations for these root traits. Although, genetic variation of root system vary from plant to plant, the presence of very fine roots (<0.5 mm diameter) and fine roots (0.5 to 2.0 mm) determines the most percentage of root traits is important for nutrient and water uptake [61][62][63]. In this study, we identified the high percentage of fine roots with diameter from 0.5 to 2.0 mm in LP compared to NP conditions, while percentage of very fine roots with <0.5 mm diameter more in NP condition.…”

Water availability moderates N2 fixation benefit from elevated [CO2]: A 2‐year free‐air CO2 enrichment study on lentil (Lens culinaris MEDIK.) in a water limited agroecosystem

“…For metabolomic analysis at flowering stage, just after uprooting the plants in the field, approximately 100‐mg freshly collected nodules were immediately frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored in −80°C until analysis. Each time, roots and nodules were collected from the harvested area using soil cores (10‐cm diameter) to 40‐cm depth, because 90% of the lentil root biomass and nodules is in the top 40 cm soil depth (Gorim & Vandenberg, ). The cores were kept on ice after excavation (except maturity samples) and brought to the laboratory, then rinsed with tap water and soaked in 0.01 M CaCl 2 solution for 5 min to remove clay particles and desorb nutrients from the root surface.…”

“…In and nodules were collected from the harvested area using soil cores (10-cm diameter) to 40-cm depth, because 90% of the lentil root biomass and nodules is in the top 40 cm soil depth (Gorim & Vandenberg, 2017 cv. Yitpi) grown as a non-N 2 fixing reference adjacent to lentil plots was also sampled.…”