scholarly journals Effects of root phenotypic changes on the deep rooting of Populus euphratica seedlings under drought stresses

PeerJ ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
pp. e6513 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zi-qi Ye ◽  
Jian-ming Wang ◽  
Wen-juan Wang ◽  
Tian-han Zhang ◽  
Jing-wen Li

Background Deep roots are critical for the survival of Populus euphratica seedlings on the floodplains of arid regions where they easily suffer drought stress. Drought typically suppresses root growth, but P. euphratica seedlings can adjust phenotypically in terms of root-shoot allocation and root architecture and morphology, thus promoting deep rooting. However, the root phenotypic changes undertaken by P. euphratica seedlings as a deep rooting strategy under drought conditions remain unknown. Methods We quantified deep rooting capacity by the relative root depth (RRD), which represents the ratio of taproot length to plant biomass and is controlled by root mass fraction (RMF), taproot mass fraction (TRMF), and specific taproot length (STRL). We recorded phenotypic changes in one-year-old P. euphratica seedlings under control, moderate and severe drought stress treatments and assessed the effects of RMF, TRMF, and STRL on RRD. Results Drought significantly decreased absolute root depth but substantially increased RRD via exerting positive effects on TRMF, RMF, and STRL. Under moderate drought, TRMF contributed 55%, RMF 27%, and STRL 18% to RRD variation. Under severe drought, the contribution of RMF to RRD variation increased to 37%, which was similar to the 41% for TRMF. The contribution of STRL slightly increased to 22%. Conclusion These results suggest that the adjustments in root architecture and root-shoot allocation were predominantly responsible for deep rooting in P. euphratica seedlings under drought conditions, while morphological changes played a minor role. Moreover, P. euphratica seedlings rely mostly on adjusting their root architecture to maintain root depth under moderate drought conditions, whereas root-shoot allocation responds more strongly under severe drought conditions, to the point where it plays a role as important as root architecture does on deep rooting.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Elsayed Mansour ◽  
Hany A. M. Mahgoub ◽  
Samir A. Mahgoub ◽  
El-Sayed E. A. El-Sobky ◽  
Mohamed I. Abdul-Hamid ◽  
...  

AbstractWater deficit has devastating impacts on legume production, particularly with the current abrupt climate changes in arid environments. The application of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) is an effective approach for producing natural nitrogen and attenuating the detrimental effects of drought stress. This study investigated the influence of inoculation with the PGPR Rhizobium leguminosarum biovar viciae (USDA 2435) and Pseudomonas putida (RA MTCC5279) solely or in combination on the physio-biochemical and agronomic traits of five diverse Vicia faba cultivars under well-watered (100% crop evapotranspiration [ETc]), moderate drought (75% ETc), and severe drought (50% ETc) conditions in newly reclaimed poor-fertility sandy soil. Drought stress substantially reduced the expression of photosynthetic pigments and water relation parameters. In contrast, antioxidant enzyme activities and osmoprotectants were considerably increased in plants under drought stress compared with those in well-watered plants. These adverse effects of drought stress reduced crop water productivity (CWP) and seed yield‐related traits. However, the application of PGPR, particularly a consortium of both strains, improved these parameters and increased seed yield and CWP. The evaluated cultivars displayed varied tolerance to drought stress: Giza-843 and Giza-716 had the highest tolerance under well-watered and moderate drought conditions, whereas Giza-843 and Sakha-4 were more tolerant under severe drought conditions. Thus, co-inoculation of drought-tolerant cultivars with R. leguminosarum and P. putida enhanced their tolerance and increased their yield and CWP under water-deficit stress conditions. This study showed for the first time that the combined use of R. leguminosarum and P. putida is a promising and ecofriendly strategy for increasing drought tolerance in legume crops.


Forests ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 50
Author(s):  
Zhenya Yang ◽  
Yonghui Cao ◽  
Jiancheng Zhao ◽  
Benzhi Zhou ◽  
Xiaogai Ge ◽  
...  

The root of Moso bamboo (Phyllostachys edulis (Carrière) J. Houz.) develops extremely rapidly at seedling phase and is highly sensitive to water content in soil, but its response patterns and adaptation strategies of its root to drought are little known. The aim of this study was to investigate the response of root morphology and architecture of Moso bamboo to drought at seedling phase and then to explore the drought adaptation strategies of its root. One-year-old potted seedlings of Moso bamboo were planted under three drought treatments (control, moderate drought and severe drought) for three months. Seedling growth, specific root length (SRL), root architecture (fractal dimension (FD), root branching angle (RBA) and root topological index (TI)) and non-structural carbohydrate (NSC) concentrations in roots were measured every month. The results are as follows: (i) The dry weight of root and shoot decreased significantly under drought stress. (ii) The SRL decreased under drought stress in the early duration (the first month), and then increased in the late duration (the third month). Both FD and RBA decreased, while TI and the concentrations of NSCs increased under drought stress. (iii) The NSC concentrations were positively correlated with SRL and TI, but exhibited an inverse relationship to FD and RBA. Our results indicated that Moso bamboo seedlings formed a “steeper, simpler, expensive (low SRL and high TI)” root architecture to adapt to a short-term drought (one month), and formed a “cheaper (high SRL)” root to adapt to a long-term drought (three months). Increase of NSC concentrations supported the root architecture plasticity to some extent.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raminder Kaur ◽  
Avtar Singh ◽  
J Kang

Mycorrhizal fungi greatly enhanced the ability of plants to take up phosphorus and other nutrients those are relatively immobile and exist in low concentration in the soil solution. Fungi can be important in the uptake of other nutrients by the host plant. Zinc nutrition is most commonly reported as being influenced by the association, although uptake of copper (Cu) , iron, N, K, Ca and Mg has been reported to be enhanced. Water uptake may be improved by mycorrhizal association, making more resistant to drought condition. Often both water and nutrient uptake are higher in drought stressed mycorrhizal plants than in non mycorrhizal plants. The fungal strands are capable of altering the water potential of plants and can only alleviate moderate drought stress and in more severe drought conditions they become ineffective.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2923
Author(s):  
Botir Khaitov ◽  
Munisa Urmonova ◽  
Aziz Karimov ◽  
Botirjon Sulaymonov ◽  
Kholik Allanov ◽  
...  

Water deficiency restricts plant productivity, while excessive soil moisture may also have an adverse impact. In light of this background, field trials were conducted in secondary saline soil (EC 6.5 dS m−1) at the experimental station of Tashkent State Agrarian University (TSAU), Uzbekistan to determine drought tolerance of licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) by exposure to four levels of water deficit, namely control (70–80%), moderate (50–60%), strong (30–40%) and intense (10–20%) relative water content (WC) in the soil. The moderate drought stress exhibited positive effects on the morphological and physiological parameters of licorice, and was considered to be the most suitable water regime for licorice cultivation. Plant growth under the 50–60% WC treatment was slightly higher as compared to 70–80% WC treatment, exhibiting weak water deficit promotes licorice growth, root yield and secondary metabolite production. In particular, secondary metabolites i.e., ash, glycyrrhizic acid, extractive compounds and flavonoids, tended to increase under moderate water deficit, however further drought intensification brought a sharp decline of these values. These results contribute to the development of licorice cultivation technologies in arid regions and the most important consideration is the restoration of ecological and economical functions of the dryland agricultural system.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuhang Liu ◽  
Zhongqun He ◽  
Yongdong Xie ◽  
Lihong Su ◽  
Ruijie Zhang ◽  
...  

Abstract A pot experiment was conducted to investigate the growth, physiological changes and mechanism of drought resistance of Phedimus aizoon L. under different levels of water content .CK: 75% ~ 80% of the MWHC (maximum water holding capacity), Mild drought: 55% ~ 60%, Moderate drought: 40% ~ 45%, Severe drought: 20% ~ 25%.We observed that the plants grew normally in the first two treatments, even the mild drought promoted the growth of the roots. In the last two treatments, drought stress had a significant negative effect on plant growth, at the same time, Phedimus aizoon L. also made positive physiological response to cope with the drought: The aboveground part of the plant (leaf, plant height, stem diameter) was smaller, the waxy layer of the leaves was thickened, the stomata of the leaves were closed during the day, and only a few stomata were opened at night, which proved that the dark reaction cycle metabolism mode of the plant was transformed from C3 cycle to CAM pathway. The activity of antioxidant enzymes (SOD, POD and CAT) was continuously increased to alleviate the damage caused by drought. To ensure the relative stability of osmotic potential, the contents of osmoregulation substances such as proline, soluble sugar, soluble protein and trehalose increased correspondingly. But plants have limited regulatory power, with aggravation of drought stress degree and extension of stress time, the MDA content and electrolyte leakage of leaves increased continuously. Observed under electron microscope,the morphology of chloroplast and mitochondria changed and the membrane structure was destroyed. The plant's photosynthetic and respiratory mechanisms are destroyed and the plant gradually die.


2015 ◽  
Vol 76 (4) ◽  
pp. 350-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peyman Ashkavand ◽  
Masoud Tabari ◽  
Mehrdad Zarafshar ◽  
Ivana Tomášková ◽  
Daniel Struve

Abstract Drought is a significant factor limiting crop production in arid regions while hawthorns (Crataegus sp.) are an important component of such region’s forests. Therefore, treatments that increase hawthorn drought resistance may also increase transplanting success. Thus, the physiological and biochemical responses of hawthorn seedlings to a factorial combination of different concentrations of silica nanoparticles (SNPs at 0, 10, 50 and 100 mg L−1) and three soil moisture treatments (without stress, moderate stress and severe stress) were investigated. Seedlings were irrigated with one of the four concentrations of SNPs for 45 days before exposing them to drought stress. Photosynthesis parameters, malondialdehyde (MDA), relative water content (RWC), membrane electrolyte leakage (ELI) as well as chlorophyll, carotenoid, carbohydrate and proline content were determined. At the end of the experiment, positive effects by SNP pre-treatment on physiological indexes were observed during drought stress. Under drought conditions, the effect of SNPs on photosynthetic rate and stomatal conductance was evident. Although the SNPs increased plant biomass, xylem water potential and MDA content, especially under drought conditions, RWC and ELI were not affected by the SNP pre-treatments. Seedlings pre-treated with SNPs had a decreased carbohydrate and proline content under all water regimes, but especially so under drought. Total chlorophyll content and carotenoid content did not change among the treatments. Generally, the findings imply that SNPs play a positive role in maintaining critical physiological and biochemical functions in hawthorn seedlings under drought stress conditions. However, more studies are needed before the physiological and biochemical basis of induced drought resistance can be determined.


2005 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Peña-Rojas ◽  
Xavier Aranda ◽  
Richard Joffre ◽  
Isabel Fleck

Functional and morphological (structural) characteristics of Quercus ilex L. leaves under drought stress were studied in the forest and in a nursery. We compared undisturbed individuals (controls) with resprouts emerging after clear-cut or excision. When soil water availability was high, gas-exchange was similar in resprouts and controls, despite higher midday leaf water potential, midday leaf hydration and relative water content (RWC). In moderate drought, stomatal closure was found to limit photosynthesis in controls, and in severe drought non-stomatal limitations of photosynthesis were also greater than in resprouts. Leaf structure and chemical composition changed under drought stress. Leaves tended to be smaller in controls with increasing drought, and resprouts had larger leaves and lower leaf mass area (LMA). The relationship between nitrogen (N) content and LMA implied lower N investment in photosynthetic components in controls, which could be responsible for their increased non-stomatal limitation of photosynthesis. Changes were more apparent in leaf density (D) and thickness (T), components of LMA. Decreases in D were related to reductions in cell wall components: hemicellulose, cellulose and lignin. In resprouts, reduced D and leaf T accounted for the higher mesophyll conductance (gmes) to CO2 measured.


2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (11) ◽  
pp. 5517
Author(s):  
Xin Jia ◽  
Xiaoqing Gong ◽  
Xumei Jia ◽  
Xianpeng Li ◽  
Yu Wang ◽  
...  

Water deficit adversely affects apple (Malus domestica) productivity on the Loess Plateau. Autophagy plays a key role in plant responses to unfavorable environmental conditions. Previously, we demonstrated that a core apple autophagy-related protein, MdATG8i, was responsive to various stresses at the transcript level. Here, we investigated the function of this gene in the response of apple to severe drought and found that its overexpression (OE) significantly enhanced drought tolerance. Under drought conditions, MdATG8iOE apple plants exhibited less drought-related damage and maintained higher photosynthetic capacities compared with the wild type (WT). The accumulation of ROS (reactive oxygen species) was lower in OE plants under drought stress and was accompanied by higher activities of antioxidant enzymes. Besides, OE plants accumulated lower amounts of insoluble or oxidized proteins but greater amounts of amino acids and flavonoid under severe drought stress, probably due to their enhanced autophagic activities. Particularly, MdATG8iOE plants showed higher root hydraulic conductivity than WT plants did under drought conditions, indicating the enhanced ability of water uptake. In summary, the overexpression of MdATG8i alleviated oxidative damage, modulated amino acid metabolism and flavonoid synthesis, and improved root water uptake, ultimately contributing to enhanced drought tolerance in apple.


Plants ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 2400
Author(s):  
Manal El-Zohri ◽  
Naseem A. Al-Wadaani ◽  
Sameera O. Bafeel

This study explored the effectiveness of green zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) foliar spray on tomato growth and oxidative stress relief under drought conditions. Tomato plant subjected to four water regimes (100, 75, 50, and 25% FC), and in the same while seedlings were sprayed with 25, 50, and 100 mg/L green ZnO-NPs. The results showed that tomato growth parameters reduced significantly by increasing drought stress levels, while ZnO-NPs enhanced plant growth under all studied drought levels. Out of three ZnO-NPs concentrations tested, 25 and 50 mg/L ZnO-NPs proved to be the optimum treatments for alleviating drought stress. They increased shoot and root biomass compared to untreated controls. Application of 25 and 50 mg/L ZnO-NPs enhanced shoot dry weight by about 2–2.5-fold, respectively, under severe drought conditions (25%) compared to ZnO-NPs untreated plants. The application of 25 and 50 mg/L green ZnO-NPs decreased the drought-induced oxidative stress as indicated by the reduction in malondialdehyde and hydrogen peroxide concentrations compared to untreated controls. While 100 mg/L ZnO-NPs further increased oxidative stress. The beneficial effects of ZnO-NPs were evident in the plants’ defensive state, in which the concentration of ascorbic acid, free phenols, and the activity of superoxide dismutase, catalase, and ascorbate peroxidase were maintained at higher levels compared to NPs-untreated plants. At severe drought conditions, 25 mg/L ZnO-NPs induced SOD, CAT, and APX activity by about 3.99-, 3.23-, and 2.82-fold of their corresponding controls, respectively. Likewise, at 25% FC, SOD, CAT, and APX activity increased with 50 mg/L ZnO-NPs by about 4.58-, 3.57-, and 3.25-fold consecutively compared with their respective controls. Therefore, foliar use of green ZnO-NPs at lower concentrations might be suggested as an efficient way for enhancing tomato tolerance to drought stress.


2020 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 54
Author(s):  
Wiski Irawan ◽  
Eka Tarwaca Susila Putra

The availability of water is one of the main limiting factors for oil palm growth and production. Potassium (K) is an essential nutrient for plants because of its role in controlling metabolic and physiological activities. This study aimed to examine the effect of different K fertilizer doses on root anatomic properties under drought stress. The experiment was arranged in factorial Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with two factors. The first factor was drought stress, consisting of three levels of fractions of transpirable soil water (FTSW) (FTSW 1 (control: field capacity); FTSW 0.35 (moderate drought); FTSW 0.15 (severe drought)) and the second factor was K dose (sourced from KCl), consisting of five levels (K0: 0%; K1: 50%; K2: 100%; K3: 150%; K4: 200%). The results showed that there was an interaction between the addition of K doses and the tolerance level of oil palm plants to drought stress. The addition of 100% K gave higher results in the parameters of xylem diameter, phloem diameter and cortex cell width compared to the plants without K. The results disclosed that 200% K application on moderate drought stress and severe drought stress in oil palm seedlings could widen xylem diameter, phloem diameters, strengthen cell such as epidermal cells, cortex cells, thickness of endodermic cells, thickness of sclerenchyma cells and increase hardness of cell compared to field capacity. As for the parameters of thick endodermic cells, stele diameter and sclerenchyma diameter, an addition of 50% K could give higher results.


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