Deeper roots associated with cooler canopies, higher normalized difference vegetation index, and greater yield in three wheat populations grown on stored soil water

Abstract

Rooting depth, a hard trait to measure in the field, was negatively correlated with canopy temperature, an easy trait to measure by airborne thermography, in large wheat populations under terminal drought

The intersection of nitrogen nutrition and water use in plants: new paths toward improved crop productivity

“…A correlation between the accumulation of ureide compounds, allantoin and allantoate, in response to drought stress has been demonstrated in a number of legumes, including common bean ( Coleto et al , 2014 ), soybean ( Silvente et al , 2012 ), and French bean ( Alamillo et al 2010 ), although this appears to be a response of only drought-sensitive genotypes ( Coleto et al , 2014 ). In comparison, allantoin accumulates in drought-tolerant cultivars of rice ( Wang et al , 2012 ; Degenkolbe et al , 2013 ; Casartelli et al , 2018 ) and wheat ( Bowne et al , 2012 ; Casartelli et al , 2019 ). In fact, allantoin accumulation is understood to provide protection to non-leguminous plant species via induction of ABA as previously described ( Watanabe et al , 2014 ).…”

“…This apparent contrast between the response of the ureide metabolic pathway in leguminous and non-leguminous plant species in response to water stress is unrelated to the de novo synthesis of ureides in nodules evidenced by the fact that ureides accumulate to levels in non-nodulated, NO 3 – -fed plants similar to those grown in symbiotic N-fixing conditions ( Alamillo et al , 2010 ). The accumulation of allantoin under drought in non-leguminous plant species, when carbon skeletons are limited for assimilation into organic N, has been suggested to prevent loss of that N as ammonia gas ( Casartelli et al , 2019 ) ( Fig. 3 ).…”

“…Regulation of these processes may prevent loss of N as NH 3 gas when carbon skeletons are in short supply. In contrast, under low N conditions, allantoin is catabolized ( Melino et al , 2018 ) and recycled to NH 3 which can be reduced by N-assimilatory enzymes or instead serve as a cheap N storage form for translocation to the grain where it represents a significant portion of the soluble N pool ( Casartelli et al , 2019 ).…”

“…These platforms can acquire large amounts of phenotypic data non-destructively at one time with decreased labour and time costs compared with conventional methods. Ground-based platforms called ‘phenomobiles’ are vehicles with a range of on-board technologies such as navigation devices and sensors ( Li et al , 2019 ; Qiu et al , 2019 ). The ground-based platforms are limited to measurement of a single or a few plots at a time.…”

The LATERAL ROOT DENSITY gene regulates root growth during water stress in wheat

“…However, genetic selections that primarily focused on shoot traits may have unintentionally impacted critical root traits in some modern high yielding cultivars (Mac Key et al, 1973;Waines and Ehdaie, 2007). An important and emerging aspect of improving drought adaptation is to optimize root architecture traits (Li et al, 2019;Lopes and Reynolds, 2010;Wasson et al, 2012).…”