Abstract
To better understand the control of root responses to phosphorus (P) availability, an improved maize inbred line 224, its donor parent 478 and recurrent parent 312 were grown at different P supply, where roots were kept intact or restricted by cutting seminal roots and crown roots at the seedling stage. The results showed that shoot growth, root morphological alterations, and P uptake of line 224 were similar to line 312, but significantly less than those of donor parent 478 across P levels and root cutting treatments. Compared to the intact plants at high P, low P and root restriction significantly reduced shoot growth by 18.4% to 56.1%. Low P supply had limited impacts on the total length and dry weight of primary roots relative to the high P in both intact and root restriction plants with few exceptions. However, at both P levels, root growth restriction dramatically stimulated the primary root growth in comparison with the intact plants. Overall, whole-plant growth and P uptake were more responsive to P availability than root restriction, while primary root growth was more affected by the latter. The study suggested that a strategy can be developed to improve the ability of maize to adapt to low-P or growth restriction environments by way of an improved root morphological plasticity.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Prof. Chunjian Li (China Agricultural University) for the critical discussion on the conceptualization of this research.
Funding
This work was supported by the State Key Basic Research and Development Plan of China (No. 2013CB127402), the Innovative Group Grant of the National Science Foundation of China (No. 31121062).
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Zhang, Y., Ning, P. Differential root response of maize inbred seedlings to root growth restriction and phosphorus availability. Biologia 78, 31–39 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11756-022-01174-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11756-022-01174-9