TY - JOUR
T1 - Unraveling root and rhizosphere traits in temperate maize landraces and modern cultivars
T2 - Implications for soil resource acquisition and drought adaptation
AU - Wild, Andreas J.
AU - Steiner, Franziska A.
AU - Kiene, Marvin
AU - Tyborski, Nicolas
AU - Tung, Shu-Yin
AU - Koehler, Tina
AU - Carminati, Andrea
AU - Eder, Barbara
AU - Groth, Jennifer
AU - Vahl, Wouter K.
AU - Wolfrum, Sebastian
AU - Lueders, Tillmann
AU - Laforsch, Christian
AU - Mueller, Carsten W.
AU - Vidal, Alix
AU - Pausch, Johanna
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2024 The Authors. Plant, Cell & Environment published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - A holistic understanding of plant strategies to acquire soil resources is pivotal in achieving sustainable food security. However, we lack knowledge about variety-specific root and rhizosphere traits for resource acquisition, their plasticity and adaptation to drought. We conducted a greenhouse experiment to phenotype root and rhizosphere traits (mean root diameter [Root D], specific root length [SRL], root tissue density, root nitrogen content, specific rhizosheath mass [SRM], arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi [AMF] colonization) of 16 landraces and 22 modern cultivars of temperate maize (Zea mays L.). Our results demonstrate that landraces and modern cultivars diverge in their root and rhizosphere traits. Although landraces follow a ‘do-it-yourself’ strategy with high SRLs, modern cultivars exhibit an ‘outsourcing’ strategy with increased mean Root Ds and a tendency towards increased root colonization by AMF. We further identified that SRM indicates an ‘outsourcing’ strategy. Additionally, landraces were more drought-responsive compared to modern cultivars based on multitrait response indices. We suggest that breeding leads to distinct resource acquisition strategies between temperate maize varieties. Future breeding efforts should increasingly target root and rhizosphere economics, with SRM serving as a valuable proxy for identifying varieties employing an outsourcing resource acquisition strategy.
AB - A holistic understanding of plant strategies to acquire soil resources is pivotal in achieving sustainable food security. However, we lack knowledge about variety-specific root and rhizosphere traits for resource acquisition, their plasticity and adaptation to drought. We conducted a greenhouse experiment to phenotype root and rhizosphere traits (mean root diameter [Root D], specific root length [SRL], root tissue density, root nitrogen content, specific rhizosheath mass [SRM], arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi [AMF] colonization) of 16 landraces and 22 modern cultivars of temperate maize (Zea mays L.). Our results demonstrate that landraces and modern cultivars diverge in their root and rhizosphere traits. Although landraces follow a ‘do-it-yourself’ strategy with high SRLs, modern cultivars exhibit an ‘outsourcing’ strategy with increased mean Root Ds and a tendency towards increased root colonization by AMF. We further identified that SRM indicates an ‘outsourcing’ strategy. Additionally, landraces were more drought-responsive compared to modern cultivars based on multitrait response indices. We suggest that breeding leads to distinct resource acquisition strategies between temperate maize varieties. Future breeding efforts should increasingly target root and rhizosphere economics, with SRM serving as a valuable proxy for identifying varieties employing an outsourcing resource acquisition strategy.
KW - arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi
KW - Index for Adaptive Responses
KW - phenotypic plasticity
KW - rhizosheath
KW - root diameter
KW - root economics space
KW - specific root length
U2 - 10.1111/pce.14898
DO - 10.1111/pce.14898
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 38515431
AN - SCOPUS:85189102858
VL - 47
SP - 2526
EP - 2541
JO - Plant, Cell and Environment
JF - Plant, Cell and Environment
SN - 0140-7791
IS - 7
ER -