scholarly journals Complete root specimen of plants grown in soil-filled root box: sampling, measuring, and staining method

Plant Methods ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Takuya Koyama ◽  
Shun Murakami ◽  
Toshihiko Karasawa ◽  
Masato Ejiri ◽  
Katsuhiro Shiono
Keyword(s):  
Root System ◽  
Surface Area ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Physiological Function ◽  
Physiological Activity ◽  
Root Traits ◽  
Arbuscular Mycorrhizal ◽  
Spatial Arrangement ◽  
Root Surface ◽  
Root Surface Area

Abstract Background Detailed datasets containing root system and its architecture in soil are required to improve understanding of resource capture by roots. However, most of the root study methods have paid little attention to make and preserve whole root specimens. This study introduces root system sampling equipment that makes the entire root specimen with minimum impairment and without displacement of the spatial arrangement of the root system in root boxes. The objectives are to assess: whether the equipment can rapidly sample the entire root system; whether root surface area is measurable from a scanned digital image of the root specimen; and whether staining of the entire root specimens would provide multidimensional visual information on the interaction between soil and physiological function of root system architecture (RSA). For validation, we examined the root response of two soybean cultivars to arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) inoculation and the effect of waterlogging stress on the physiological activity of buckwheat RSA. Results The root boxes allowed soybean and buckwheat plants to grow uniformly across the replications. Both species showed significant differences between cultivars and/or among treatments in shoot and root traits. The equipment enabled to sample the whole-root specimens of soybean and buckwheat, where the tips of the fine roots were alive (diameter < 0.2 mm). Also, the whole root specimens of soybean were made in about 7 min. The root surface area calculated from the scanned soybean specimens showed a significant correlation with that calculated from the roots spread out in water (a common method). Staining of the soybean root specimens enabled us to observe the localized root proliferation induced by AM colonization. Moreover, staining of the buckwheat root specimens made it possible to examine the respiratory activity of each root at different depths. Conclusions The present method realized: fast and accurate production of the whole root specimen and precise calculation of the specimens’ root surface area. Moreover, staining of the root specimens enabled analyzing the interaction between soil and physiological function of RSA. The evaluation of root traits, using our methods, will contribute to developing agronomic management and breeding program for sustainable food production.

scholarly journals Phenotypic Diversity for Root Traits and Identification of Superior Germplasm for Root Breeding in Watermelon

HortScience ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 55 (8) ◽  
pp. 1272-1279
Author(s):  
Dennis N. Katuuramu ◽  
W. Patrick Wechter ◽  
Marcellus L. Washington ◽  
Matthew Horry ◽  
Matthew A. Cutulle ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Root System ◽  
Surface Area ◽  
Root Length ◽  
Root Traits ◽  
Root Surface ◽  
Root Diameter ◽  
Root Surface Area ◽  
Total Root Length ◽  
Root Volume ◽  
Diverse Range

Root traits are an important component for productive plant performance. Roots offer immediate absorptive surfaces for water and nutrient acquisition and are thus critical to crop growth and response to biotic and abiotic stresses. In addition, roots can provide the first line of defense against soilborne pathogens. Watermelon crop performance is often challenged by inclement weather and environmental factors. A resilient root system can support the watermelon crop’s performance across a diverse range of production conditions. In this study, 335 four-day-old watermelon (Citrullus spp.) seedlings were evaluated for total root length, average root diameter, total root surface area, and total root volume. Total root length varied from 8.78 to 181 cm (20.6-fold variation), total surface area varied from 2 to 35.5 cm2, and average root diameter and total root volume had an 8- and 29.5-fold variation, respectively. Genotypes PI 195927 (Citrullus colocynthis) and PI 674448 (Citrullus amarus) had the largest total root length values. Accessions PI 674448 and PI 494817 (C. amarus) had the largest total root surface area means. Watermelon cultivars (Citrullus lanatus) had a relatively smaller root system and significantly fewer fibrous roots when compared with the roots of the other Citrullus spp. Positive genetic correlations were identified among total root length, total root surface area, and total root volume. This genetic information will be useful in future breeding efforts to select for multiple root architecture traits in watermelon. Germplasm identified in this study that exhibit superior root traits can be used as parental choices to improve watermelon for root traits.

scholarly journals Comparison of Root System Morphology of Cucurbit Rootstocks for Use in Watermelon Grafting

2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (5) ◽  
pp. 629-636 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew B. Bertucci ◽  
David H. Suchoff ◽  
Katherine M. Jennings ◽  
David W. Monks ◽  
Christopher C. Gunter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Root System ◽  
Surface Area ◽  
Root Length ◽  
Dry Weight ◽  
Root Systems ◽  
Root Surface ◽  
Root Diameter ◽  
Root Surface Area ◽  
Diameter Class ◽  
Main Effect

Grafting of watermelon (Citrullus lanatus) is an established production practice that provides resistance to soilborne diseases or tolerance to abiotic stresses. Watermelon may be grafted on several cucurbit species (interspecific grafting); however, little research exists to describe root systems of these diverse rootstocks. A greenhouse study was conducted to compare root system morphology of nine commercially available cucurbit rootstocks, representing four species: pumpkin (Cucurbita maxima), squash (Cucurbita pepo), bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria), and an interspecific hybrid squash (C. maxima × C. moschata). Rootstocks were grafted with a triploid watermelon scion (‘Exclamation’), and root systems were compared with nongrafted (NG) and self-grafted (SG) ‘Exclamation’. Plants were harvested destructively at 1, 2, and 3 weeks after transplant (WAT), and data were collected on scion dry weight, total root length (TRL), average root diameter, root surface area, root:shoot dry-weight ratio, root diameter class proportions, and specific root length. For all response variables, the main effect of rootstock and rootstock species was significant (P < 0.05). The main effect of harvest was significant (P < 0.05) for all response variables, with the exception of TRL proportion in diameter class 2. ‘Ferro’ rootstock produced the largest TRL and root surface area, with observed values 122% and 120% greater than the smallest root system (‘Exclamation’ SG), respectively. Among rootstock species, pumpkin produced the largest TRL and root surface area, with observed values 100% and 82% greater than those of watermelon, respectively. These results demonstrate that substantial differences exist during the initial 3 WAT in root system morphology of rootstocks and rootstock species available for watermelon grafting and that morphologic differences of root systems can be characterized using image analysis.

scholarly journals Study on measurement method for apple root morphological parameters based on Labview

Plant Methods ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu Liu ◽  
Ji Qian ◽  
Xin Yang ◽  
Bao Di ◽  
Juan Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Root System ◽  
Surface Area ◽  
Relative Error ◽  
Root Length ◽  
Average Diameter ◽  
Root Surface ◽  
Root Diameter ◽  
Root Surface Area ◽  
Root Volume ◽  
Seedling Roots

Abstract Background Traditional measurements of apple seedling roots often rely on manual measurements and existing root scanners on the market. Manual measurement requires a lot of labor and time, and subjective reasons may cause the uncertainty of data; root scanners have limited scanning size and expensive. In case of fruit roots, coverage and occlusion issues will occur, resulting in inaccurate results, but our research solved this problem. Results The background plate was selected according to the color of the seedling roots; the image of the roots of the collected apple seedlings was preprocessed with Vision Development Module by combining image and Labview. The root surface area, average root diameter, root length and root volume of apple seedlings were measured by combining root characteristic parameters algorithm. In order to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method, a set of measurement system for root morphology of apple seedlings was designed, and the measurement result was compared with the Canadian root system WinRHIZO 2016 (Canada). With application of SPSS v22.0 analysis, the significance P > 0.01 indicated that the difference was not significant. The relative error of surface area was less than 0.5%. The relative error of the average diameter and length of the root system was less than 0.1%, and the relative error of the root volume was less than 0.2%. Conclusions It not only proved that the root surface area, average root diameter, root length and root volume of apple seedlings could be accurately measured by the method described herein, which was handy in operation, but also reduced the cost by 80–90% compared with the conventional scanner.

scholarly journals Spatial and temporal distribution of mung bean (Vigna radiata) and soybean (Glycine max) roots

2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 2263-2278
Author(s):  
Hang ZHOU ◽  
Dianfeng ZHENG ◽  
Naijie Feng
Keyword(s):  
Root System ◽  
Surface Area ◽  
Mung Bean ◽  
Temporal Distribution ◽  
Root Surface ◽  
Root Surface Area ◽  
Spatial And Temporal Distribution ◽  
Soil Layers ◽  
Soybean Roots ◽  
Distribution Of Roots

Spatial and temporal distribution of roots of mung bean and soybean originated from different geographical backgrounds is an important scientific issue. The aim of this study was to research the spatial and temporal distribution of roots system of soybean cultivar ‘Hefeng55’ and mung bean cultivar ‘Jilv7’ which can elucidate differences between soybean roots and mung bean roots in the key spatial and temporal locations. The roots at V6, R2, R4, R5, R6, and R7 stages were collected to acquire data of root length, root surface area, root volume and root dry weight. 49.8%, 11.7%, 13.2%, 14.7% and 10.6% of soybean roots and 57.8%, 10.7%, 11.2%, 11.9% and 8.4% of mung bean roots were in 0-5, 5-10, 10-15, 15-20 and 20-25 cm horizontal soil layers, respectively; 79.2%, 11.5%, 4.3%, 1.8%, 1.1%, 1.0% and 1.1% of soybean roots and 70.0%, 12.3%, 8.0%, 3.0%, 1.6%, 1.7% and 3.4% of mung bean roots were in 0-20, 20-40, 40-60, 60-80, 80-100, 100-120 and 120-140 cm vertical soil layers, respectively. Compared with mung bean, soybean had a much larger root system during development. In horizontal direction, soybean root tended to be more laterally developed, but the distribution of mung bean root was more uniform in vertical direction. With a greater root surface area to weight ratio (AWR), mung bean had a finer root system than soybean. These findings can help to clarify the four-dimensional spatial and temporal distribution characteristics of legumes and may provide reference for production practice of soybean and mung bean in the future.

scholarly journals Integrating GWAS and Gene Expression Analysis Identifies Candidate Genes for Root Morphology Traits in Maize at the Seedling Stage

Genes ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (10) ◽  
pp. 773 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wang ◽  
Wei ◽  
Li ◽  
Wang ◽  
Ge ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Root System ◽  
Candidate Genes ◽  
Root Development ◽  
Root Length ◽  
Root Traits ◽  
Root Surface ◽  
Root Surface Area ◽  
Phenotypic Variance ◽  
Potential Candidate ◽  
Short Root

Root system plays an essential role in water and nutrient acquisition in plants. Understanding the genetic basis of root development will be beneficial for breeding new cultivars with efficient root system to enhance resource use efficiency in maize. Here, the natural variation of 13 root and 3 shoot traits was evaluated in 297 maize inbred lines and genome-wide association mapping was conducted to identify SNPs associated with target traits. All measured traits exhibited 2.02- to 21.36-fold variations. A total of 34 quantitative trait loci (QTLs) were detected for 13 traits, and each individual QTL explained 5.7% to 15.9% of the phenotypic variance. Three pleiotropic QTLs involving five root traits were identified; SNP_2_104416607 was associated with lateral root length (LRL), root surface area (RA), root length between 0 and 0.5mm in diameter (RL005), and total root length (TRL); SNP_2_184016997 was associated with RV and RA, and SNP_4_168917747 was associated with LRL, RA and TRL. The expression levels of candidate genes in root QTLs were evaluated by RNA-seq among three long-root lines and three short-root lines. A total of five genes that showed differential expression between the long- and short-root lines were identified as promising candidate genes for the target traits. These QTLs and the potential candidate genes are important source data to understand root development and genetic improvement of root traits in maize.

scholarly journals The Response of Spring Wheat Cultivars to Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Colonization under Salinity Stresses

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 58 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daishu Yi ◽  
Timothy Schwinghamer ◽  
Yolande Dalpé ◽  
Jaswinder Singh ◽  
Shahrokh Khanizadeh
Keyword(s):  
Surface Area ◽  
Spring Wheat ◽  
Wheat Yield ◽  
Food Resource ◽  
Arbuscular Mycorrhizal ◽  
Dry Weight ◽  
Root Surface ◽  
Root Surface Area ◽  
Mutualistic Symbiosis ◽  
Root Dry Weight

Wheat is an important crop, playing inevitable roles in human life, ranging from major food resource to raw material for biofuel. However, due to the dramatically reduced available arable areas and increasingly severe abiotic and biotic stresses, wheat production nowadays faces extreme challenges.. Many approaches have been explored to increase wheat yield including development of new cultivars. One of the most promising approaches is the application of the naturally existent arbuscular mycorrhiza (AM), a mutualistic symbiosis originated over 400 million years ago. AM have long been known to form mutualistic symbiosis with various plants to enhance yield production and to improve stress tolerance, especially drought and salinity. But the benefits vary among AM strains and plant species. Therefore, the objective of the study was to investigate the influence of four AM strains colonized on four selected spring wheat varieties under three salt concentrations (0, 50, 100 mmol/L). The results demonstrated that wheat inoculated with arbuscular mycorrhizal strains Funneliformis mosseae and Rhizoglomusirregulare mitigated yield losses caused by increased salinity stresses as well as strengthened root growth in comparison with non-inoculated plant controls. Salinity stress, however, had non-significant negative effects on most variables, except for grain yield, root surface area and root dry weight, in which a significant decrease was observed in root surface area and root dry weight with the increasing of saline concentration.

scholarly journals Improvements in the Root Morphology, Physiology, and Anatomy of Platycladus orientalis Seedlings from Air-root Pruning

HortScience ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 53 (12) ◽  
pp. 1750-1756
Author(s):  
Zhipei Feng ◽  
Xitian Yang ◽  
Hongyan Liang ◽  
Yuhua Kong ◽  
Dafeng Hui ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Root System ◽  
Surface Area ◽  
Root Length ◽  
Specific Root Length ◽  
Experimental Period ◽  
Root Surface ◽  
Root Surface Area ◽  
Root Pruning ◽  
Root Tips ◽  
Platycladus Orientalis

Air-root pruning (AP) has been identified as an effective technique for enhancing root growth and development. However, little information is available regarding the temporal changes in the root system of Platycladus orientalis (L.) Franco under AP. We performed integrated morphological, physiological, and anatomical analyses of the roots in P. orientalis seedlings that had been air-root pruned for 120, 150, and 190 days. Our results found that the whole root length, number of root tips, and root surface area of AP seedlings at 120, 150, and 190 days were higher than those of the non–root-pruned (NP) seedlings (P < 0.05), but the average root diameter did not differ significantly between the treatments. Compared with NP treatment, AP increased the root length, surface area, number of tips, and specific root length of the ≤0.5 mm diameter roots in P. orientalis during the experimental periods (P < 0.05), but those of 0.5- to 1-mm-diameter roots were only increased on day 190 (P < 0.05). The AP plants also exhibited higher root vitality and proportion of live fine roots than the NP plants (P < 0.05). Our anatomical evaluation of the ≤0.5 mm roots and taproots revealed features that could account for the morphological differences found between the AP and NP plants. In conclusion, our results indicate that air-root pruning induced changes in the roots that promote the root system development in P. orientalis compared with the NP treatment during the experimental period. These results thus provide experimental evidence to support the use of AP in P. orientalis seedlings.

scholarly journals Comparison of root tolerance to drought and aphid (Myzus persicae Sulzer) resistance among different potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) cultivars

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Quandahor ◽  
Yuping Gou ◽  
Chunyan Lin ◽  
Jeffrey A. Coulter ◽  
Changzhong Liu
Keyword(s):  
Solanum Tuberosum ◽  
Root System ◽  
Surface Area ◽  
Water Deficit ◽  
Myzus Persicae ◽  
Root Surface ◽  
Root Surface Area ◽  
Root Tips ◽  
Projected Area ◽  
Aphid Infestation

AbstractThis study was conducted to determine the root system architecture and biochemical responses of three potato (Solanum tuberosum L.) cultivars to drought and aphid (Myzus persicae Sulzer) infestation under greenhouse conditions. A factorial experiment comprising three potato cultivars (Qingshu 9, Longshu 3, and Atlantic), two levels of water (Well watered and drought) application and aphid infestation (Aphids and no aphids) was conducted. The results show that drought stress and aphid infestation significantly increased the root-projected area, root surface area, number of root tips, and number of root forks of all cultivars, relative to their corresponding control plants. The least root projected area, root surface area, number of root tips, and number of root forks occurred on DXY under both drought and aphid infestation. Nevertheless, the greatest root projected area, root surface area, number of root tips and number of root forks occurred on QS9 plants. Moreover, increased SOD, CAT, and POD activities were observed across all cultivars, under drought and aphid stress. The highest SOD, POD, and CAT activities occurred in QS9; under drought and aphid stress, while the least SOD, POD, and CAT activities was observed in DXY. The Atlantic cultivar, which possesses a root system sensitive to water deficit, demonstrated greater resistance to aphid infestation under well-watered and drought-stressed conditions. Conversely, Qingshu 9, which possesses a root system tolerant to water deficit, was highly susceptible to aphids. This study shows that the root architectural and biochemical traits that enhance potato tolerance to drought do not necessarily correlate to a plant’s tolerance to aphids.

scholarly journals The Role of Root Morphology and Pulling Direction in Pullout Resistance of Alfalfa Roots

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qihong Yang ◽  
Chaobo Zhang ◽  
Pengchong Liu ◽  
Jing Jiang
Keyword(s):  
Root System ◽  
Surface Area ◽  
Root Length ◽  
Pullout Test ◽  
Root Surface ◽  
Root Diameter ◽  
Root Surface Area ◽  
Pullout Resistance ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Morphological Indices

There is a growing consensus on soil conservation by mechanics of plant root system. In order to further study how root system exerts its mechanical properties during soil reinforcing process and which morphological indicator is suitable for reflecting pullout resistance, in-situ vertical pullout test (VPT) and 45° oblique pullout test (OPT) were performed on alfalfa (Medicago sativa L.) roots in the loess area. The results showed that the failure mode of alfalfa roots was pulling out in this study. The peak pullout resistance of the roots increased with root diameter, root length and root surface area, and power law relationships were observed between the pullout resistance and the morphological indices: root diameter, root length and root surface area. The maximum gray relational degree of the morphological indices was 0.841 (VPT) and 0.849 (OPT) for root surface area, suggesting that root surface area was a more significant root morphological index affecting root pullout resistance than root diameter and root length, and was more suitable for characterizing the difference in peak pullout resistance of roots with different size. The index could be used to validate the methods for predicting root pullout capacity. The value of peak pullout resistance was 17.2 ± 2.3 N in VPT test and 28.2 ± 3.8 N (mean ± SE) in OPT test, and a significant difference was observed between the two tests, which showed that the pulling direction significantly affected the peak pullout resistance of alfalfa roots. Vertical pullout test, giving the safety margin, was suggested to determine root pullout resistance for estimate of root reinforcement.

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