Broad-scale phenotyping in Arabidopsis reveals varied involvement of RNA interference across diverse plant-microbe interactions.

RNA interference (RNAi) is a crucial mechanism in immunity against infectious microbes through the action of DICER-LIKE (DCL) and ARGONAUTE (AGO) proteins. In the case of the taxonomically diverse fungal pathogen and the oomycete , plant DCL and AGO proteins have proven roles as negative regulators of immunity, suggesting functional specialization of these proteins. To address this aspect in a broader taxonomic context, we characterized the colonization pattern of an informative set of and loss-of-function mutants in upon infection with a panel of pathogenic microbes with different lifestyles, and a fungal mutualist.

Benefits and limits of biological nitrification inhibitors for plant nitrogen uptake and the environment.

Plant growth and high yields are secured by intensive use of nitrogen (N) fertilizer, which, however, pollutes the environment, especially when N is in the form of nitrate. Ammonium is oxidized to nitrate by nitrifiers, but roots can release biological nitrification inhibitors (BNIs). Under what conditions does root-exudation of BNIs facilitate nitrogen N uptake and reduce pollution by N loss to the environment? We modeled the spatial-temporal dynamics of nitrifiers, ammonium, nitrate, and BNIs around a root and simulated root N uptake and net rhizosphere N loss over the plant's life cycle.

More N fertilizer, more maize, and less alfalfa: maize benefits from its higher N uptake per unit root length.

Root plasticity is fundamental to soil nutrient acquisition and maximizing production. Different soil nitrogen (N) levels affect root development, aboveground dry matter accumulation, and N uptake. This phenotypic plasticity is well documented for single plants and specific monocultures but is much less understood in intercrops in which species compete for the available nutrients.

Pitfalls and potential of high-throughput plant phenotyping platforms.

Automated high-throughput plant phenotyping (HTPP) enables non-invasive, fast and standardized evaluations of a large number of plants for size, development, and certain physiological variables. Many research groups recognize the potential of HTPP and have made significant investments in HTPP infrastructure, or are considering doing so. To make optimal use of limited resources, it is important to plan and use these facilities prudently and to interpret the results carefully.

Assessing the Storage Root Development of Cassava with a New Analysis Tool.

Storage roots of cassava plants crops are one of the main providers of starch in many South American, African, and Asian countries. Finding varieties with high yields is crucial for growing and breeding. This requires a better understanding of the dynamics of storage root formation, which is usually done by repeated manual evaluation of root types, diameters, and their distribution in excavated roots.

Plant root plasticity during drought and recovery: What do we know and where to go?

Aims: Drought stress is one of the most limiting factors for agriculture and ecosystem productivity. Climate change exacerbates this threat by inducing increasingly intense and frequent drought events. Root plasticity during both drought and post-drought recovery is regarded as fundamental to understanding plant climate resilience and maximizing production.

Deep-water uptake under drought improved due to locally increased root conductivity in maize, but not in faba bean.

Moderate soil drying can cause a strong decrease in the soil-root system conductance. The resulting impact on root water uptake depends on the spatial distribution of the altered conductance relatively to remaining soil water resources, which is largely unknown. Here, we analyzed the vertical distribution of conductance across root systems using a novel, noninvasive sensor technology on pot-grown faba bean and maize plants.

Nutrient deficiency effects on root architecture and root-to-shoot ratio in arable crops.

Plant root traits play a crucial role in resource acquisition and crop performance when soil nutrient availability is low. However, the respective trait responses are complex, particularly at the field scale, and poorly understood due to difficulties in root phenotyping monitoring, inaccurate sampling, and environmental conditions. Here, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of 50 field studies to identify the effects of nitrogen (N), phosphorous (P), or potassium (K) deficiencies on the root systems of common crops.

Stomatal conductance tracks soil-to-leaf hydraulic conductance in faba bean and maize during soil drying.

Although regulation of stomatal conductance is widely assumed to be the most important plant response to soil drying, the picture is incomplete when hydraulic conductance from soil to the leaf, upstream of the stomata, is not considered. Here, we investigated to what extent soil drying reduces the conductance between soil and leaf, whether this reduction differs between species, how it affects stomatal regulation, and where in the hydraulic pathway it occurs. To this end, we noninvasively and continuously measured the total root water uptake rate, soil water potential, leaf water potential, and stomatal conductance of 4-week-old, pot-grown maize (Zea mays) and faba bean (Vicia faba) plants during 4 days of water restriction.

Rice increases phosphorus uptake in strongly sorbing soils by intra-root facilitation.

Upland rice (Oryza sativa) is adapted to strongly phosphorus (P) sorbing soils. The mechanisms underlying P acquisition, however, are not well understood, and models typically underestimate uptake. This complicates root ideotype development and trait-based selection for further improvement.

Simulating Crop Root Systems Using OpenSimRoot.

Functional-structural plant models are valuable modeling tools in analyzing plant development. A functional-structural plant model combines a three-dimensional representation of plant structure with models for physiological functions in order to better understand plant development. We present a guide to simulating crop root systems with OpenSimRoot, a feature-rich, highly cited, and open-source functional-structural root architecture model.

A starting guide to root ecology: strengthening ecological concepts and standardising root classification, sampling, processing and trait measurements.

In the context of a recent massive increase in research on plant root functions and their impact on the environment, root ecologists currently face many important challenges to keep on generating cutting-edge, meaningful and integrated knowledge. Consideration of the below-ground components in plant and ecosystem studies has been consistently called for in recent decades, but methodology is disparate and sometimes inappropriate. This handbook, based on the collective effort of a large team of experts, will improve trait comparisons across studies and integration of information across databases by providing standardised methods and controlled vocabularies.

Motherly care: How Leymus chinensis ramets support their offspring exposed to saline-alkali and clipping stresses.

Background: While clonal integration can improve the performance of rhizomatous plants, it remains unclear whether their clonal integration strategy changes under contrasting clipping and saline-alkali homogeneous and heterogeneous environments. Leymus chinensis is a clonal grass native to the Songnen grassland where heavy grazing and patchy saline-alkali stress are serious environmental and ecological problems. We hypothesized that L.

Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Upland-Rice Root Architecture in Relation to Phosphate: 3D Simulations Highlight the Importance of S-Type Lateral Roots for Reducing the Pay-Off Time.

The rice root system develops a large number of nodal roots from which two types of lateral roots branch out, large L-types and fine S-types, the latter being unique to the species. All roots including S-types are covered by root hairs. To what extent these fine structures contribute to phosphate (P) uptake under P deficiency was investigated using a novel 3-D root growth model that treats root hairs as individual structures with their own Michaelis-Menten uptake kinetics.

An Analysis of Soil Coring Strategies to Estimate Root Depth in Maize () and Common Bean ().

A soil coring protocol was developed to cooptimize the estimation of root length distribution (RLD) by depth and detection of functionally important variation in root system architecture (RSA) of maize and bean. The functional-structural model was used to perform soil coring at six locations on three different maize and bean RSA phenotypes. Results were compared to two seasons of field soil coring and one trench.

Dividing the pie: A quantitative review on plant density responses.

Plant population density is an important variable in agronomy and forestry and offers an experimental way to better understand plant-plant competition. We made a meta-analysis of responses of even-aged mono-specific stands to population density by quantifying for 3 stand and 33 individual plant variables in 334 experiments how much both plant biomass and phenotypic traits change with a doubling in density. Increasing density increases standing crop per area, but decreases the mean size of its individuals, mostly through reduced tillering and branching.

Spatio-Temporal Variation in Water Uptake in Seminal and Nodal Root Systems of Barley Plants Grown in Soil.

The spatial and temporal dynamics of root water uptake in nodal and seminal roots are poorly understood, especially in relation to root system development and aging. Here we non-destructively quantify 1) root water uptake and 2) root length of nodal and seminal roots of barley in three dimensions during 43 days of growth. We developed a concentric split root system to hydraulically and physically isolate the seminal and nodal root systems.

Spatially Resolved Root Water Uptake Determination Using a Precise Soil Water Sensor.

To answer long-standing questions about how plants use and regulate water, an affordable, noninvasive way to determine local root water uptake (RWU) is required. Here, we present a sensor, the soil water profiler (SWaP), which can determine local soil water content (θ) with a precision of 6.10 cm ⋅ cm, an accuracy of 0.

Call for Participation: Collaborative Benchmarking of Functional-Structural Root Architecture Models. The Case of Root Water Uptake.

Three-dimensional models of root growth, architecture and function are becoming important tools that aid the design of agricultural management schemes and the selection of beneficial root traits. However, while benchmarking is common in many disciplines that use numerical models, such as natural and engineering sciences, functional-structural root architecture models have never been systematically compared. The following reasons might induce disagreement between the simulation results of different models: different representation of root growth, sink term of root water and solute uptake and representation of the rhizosphere.

Crop Improvement from Phenotyping Roots: Highlights Reveal Expanding Opportunities.

Root systems determine the water and nutrients for photosynthesis and harvested products, underpinning agricultural productivity. We highlight 11 programs that integrated root traits into germplasm for breeding, relying on phenotyping. Progress was successful but slow.

Soil compaction and the architectural plasticity of root systems.

Soil compaction is a serious global problem, and is a major cause of inadequate rooting and poor yield in crops around the world. Root system architecture (RSA) describes the spatial arrangement of root components within the soil and determines the plant's exploration of the soil. Soil strength restricts root growth and may slow down root system development.

Co-optimization of axial root phenotypes for nitrogen and phosphorus acquisition in common bean.

Background And Aims: Root architecture is a primary determinant of soil resource acquisition. We hypothesized that root architectural phenes will display both positive and negative interactions with each other for soil resource capture because of competition for internal resources and functional trade-offs in soil exploration.

Methods: We employed the functional-structural plant model SimRoot to explore how interactions among architectural phenes in common bean determine the acquisition of phosphate and nitrate, two key soil resources contrasting in mobility.