Back to Search
Start Over
Grasses suppress shoot-borne roots to conserve water during drought
Grasses suppress shoot-borne roots to conserve water during drought
- Source :
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 113:8861-8866
- Publication Year :
- 2016
- Publisher :
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2016.
-
Abstract
- Many important crops are members of the Poaceae family, which develop root systems characterized by a high degree of root initiation from the belowground basal nodes of the shoot, termed the crown. Although this postembryonic shoot-borne root system represents the major conduit for water uptake, little is known about the effect of water availability on its development. Here we demonstrate that in the model C4 grass Setaria viridis, the crown locally senses water availability and suppresses postemergence crown root growth under a water deficit. This response was observed in field and growth room environments and in all grass species tested. Luminescence-based imaging of root systems grown in soil-like media revealed a shift in root growth from crown-derived to primary root-derived branches, suggesting that primary root-dominated architecture can be induced in S. viridis under certain stress conditions. Crown roots of Zea mays and Setaria italica, domesticated relatives of teosinte and S. viridis, respectively, show reduced sensitivity to water deficit, suggesting that this response might have been influenced by human selection. Enhanced water status of maize mutants lacking crown roots suggests that under a water deficit, stronger suppression of crown roots actually may benefit crop productivity.
- Subjects :
- 0106 biological sciences
0301 basic medicine
Setaria
Setaria Plant
Root system
Poaceae
Plant Roots
Zea mays
01 natural sciences
Soil
03 medical and health sciences
Multidisciplinary
biology
Setaria viridis
fungi
Crown (botany)
Water
food and beverages
Biological Sciences
biology.organism_classification
Droughts
Horticulture
030104 developmental biology
Agronomy
Mutation
Shoot
Stress conditions
Plant Shoots
010606 plant biology & botany
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 10916490 and 00278424
- Volume :
- 113
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....e8ae5add8b1934a39e3a76b6cfcb43d4
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1604021113