Wheat root length and not branching is altered in the presence of neighbours, including blackgrass

Abstract

The effect of neighbouring plants on crop root system architecture may directly interfere with water and nutrient acquisition, yet this important and interesting aspect of competition remains poorly understood. Here, the effect of the weed blackgrass (Alopecurus myosuroides Huds.) on wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) roots was tested, since a low density of this species (25 plants m -2 ) can lead to a 10% decrease in wheat yield and herbicide resistance is problematic. We used a simplified growth system based on gelled medium, to grow wheat alongside a neighbour, either another wheat plant, a blackgrass or Brachypodium dystachion individual (a model grass). A detailed analysis of wheat seminal root system architecture showed that the presence of a neighbour principally affected the root length, rather than number or diameter under a high nutrient regime. In particular, the length of first order lateral roots decreased significantly in the presence of blackgrass and Brachypodium. However, this effect was not noted when wheat plants were grown in low nutrient conditions. This suggests that wheat may be less sensitive to the presence of blackgrass when grown in low nutrient conditions. In addition, nutrient availability to the neighbour did not modulate the neighbour effect on wheat root architecture.

Genetic ability and seedling drought characterization of winter wheat lines in Croatia

“…Root length at the seedling stages of the plant is a key genetic trait for increasing yield under drought conditions (Shahbazi et al, 2012). Also, this trait was the most variable trait, as according to previous study the length of wheat seminal roots was mainly affected by the presence of another wheat plants (Finch et al, 2017) and that could be the case in the current research for the roots in petri dishes. 2011) applied both normal and water-deficient conditions to wheat genotypes and observed that genotypes performed better under environments which had optimum RWC and root and shoot length, which were considered droughttolerant genotypes.…”

Trait-Based Root Phenotyping as a Necessary Tool for Crop Selection and Improvement

“…Varying methods of planting have been utilized for gel-based systems to combat these problems. Studies utilizing gel-phenotyping have germinated seeds in Petri plates with media [85] or in nutrient solution [83] and have then inserted the seedlings into the gel for further growth. This method may artificially influence the root angle and can damage roots.…”

Image-Based, Organ-Level Plant Phenotyping for Wheat Improvement

“…The user has the option to review the automatic identification for each root segment to ensure an accurate measurement of the imaged root system [68]. SmartRoot has been used in wheat research to characterize germplasm [70,71], analyze plant-plant interactions [72], and study potential breeding targets for root architectural traits [73].…”