Diversity in Root Architecture of Durum Wheat at Stem Elongation under Drought Stress
Author(s)
Date Issued
2022
Type
article
Volume
12
Issue
6
Start Page
1
End Page
29
Journal
Abstract
Durum wheat is a major crop in the Mediterranean basin, where water deficit is the most important factor affecting its production. Under drought conditions, the root system has a crucial
role in crop productivity as a water and nutrition supplier. The aim of the study was to analyze root
system diversity in six contrasting durum wheat accessions, including two hydric stress-tolerant
genotypes, and to evaluate root traits using the high-throughput phenotyping scannerWin-RHIZO in order to determine the main traits to be used in breeding programs. Six durum wheat accessions were subjected to two drought events under greenhouse conditions from the seedlings stage (BBCH12) for 49 days. Root phenotyping data were validated with results from plants grown in the rainfed field. This study highlighted a great variability among the analyzed genotypes in terms of development, distribution, and architecture of the root system under difficult environments, underlining a good resilience to climate change. Interestingly, the two hydric stress-tolerant genotypes, Cham1 and J. Khetifa, showed different root system ideotypes and rooting patterns under drought conditions. The late flowering landrace J. Khetifa (as also genotypes; Pelsodur and Vulci) showed a steep and long root system ideotype that led to the maintaining of the highest root biomass, length, and volume under drought conditions, while the early flowering genotype Cham1 (as also genotype; Sebatel) was distinguished by a wider root system ideotype, and by increasing the root volume in the topsoil as a strategy to tolerate drought. Moreover, a significant positive correlation was obtained between the root angle of plants grown under greenhouse conditions and plants from the field. Our results demonstrated that screening plant roots in early stages grown under greenhouse conditions using high-throughput phenotyping systems can speed up the selection for crop improvement and future drought stress breeding programs.
Subjects
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agronomy-12-01329-v2.pdf
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Lavoro
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2.66 MB
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Checksum (MD5)
2e80768995eb5264841042a8d45d20e5
Project(s)
European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 771367 (ECOBREED project).