Wheats developed for high yield on stored soil moisture have deep vigorous root systems
Sarah M. Rich A B , Anton P. Wasson A H , Richard A. Richards A , Trushna Katore C , Renu Prashar D , Ritika Chowdhary E , D. C. Saxena D , H. M. Mamrutha E , Alec Zwart F , S. C. Misra C , S. V. Sai Prasad D , R. Chatrath E , Jack Christopher G and Michelle Watt A
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A CSIRO Agriculture Flagship, GPO Box 1600, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
B School of Plant Biology, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences, The University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, WA 6009, Australia.
C Agharkar Research Institute, Agarkar Road, Pune, 411 004, India.
D Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Regional Wheat Research Station, Indore, 452 001, India.
E Indian Directorate of Wheat Research, Karnal, 132 001, India.
F CSIRO Data 61, GPO Box 664, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.
G University of Queensland, Queensland Alliance for Agricultural and Food Innovation, Leslie Research Centre, PO Box 2282, Toowoomba, Qld 4350, Australia.
H Corresponding author. Email: anton.wasson@csiro.au
Functional Plant Biology 43(2) 173-188 https://doi.org/10.1071/FP15182
Submitted: 3 July 2015 Accepted: 6 November 2015 Published: 4 January 2016
Abstract
Many rainfed wheat production systems are reliant on stored soil water for some or all of their water inputs. Selection and breeding for root traits could result in a yield benefit; however, breeding for root traits has traditionally been avoided due to the difficulty of phenotyping mature root systems, limited understanding of root system development and function, and the strong influence of environmental conditions on the phenotype of the mature root system. This paper outlines an international field selection program for beneficial root traits at maturity using soil coring in India and Australia. In the rainfed areas of India, wheat is sown at the end of the monsoon into hot soils with a quickly receding soil water profile; in season water inputs are minimal. We hypothesised that wheat selected and bred for high yield under these conditions would have deep, vigorous root systems, allowing them to access and utilise the stored soil water at depth around anthesis and grain-filling when surface layers were dry. The Indian trials resulted in 49 lines being sent to Australia for phenotyping. These lines were ranked against 41 high yielding Australian lines. Variation was observed for deep root traits e.g. in eastern Australia in 2012, maximum depth ranged from 118.8 to 146.3 cm. There was significant variation for root traits between sites and years, however, several Indian genotypes were identified that consistently ranked highly across sites and years for deep rooting traits.
Additional keywords: deep roots, field phenotyping, soil coring, root penetration rate, maximum depth, total root length.
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