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Natural variation in root system architecture in diverse wheat genotypes grown under different nitrate conditions and root growth media

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Abstract

Roots have significant impact on plants ability to adapt to different environmental constraints such as nutrient availability. They exhibit varied morphological responses to different nitrogen levels indicating its developmental plasticity in relation to nitrogen availability. In order to understand the genetic diversity in modulation of root architecture among diverse wheat genotypes in response to external root growth media and nitrate starvation, root system architecture parameters such as total toot size, main root size, lateral root size, 1st order lateral root number and 2nd order lateral root number were studied in 15 days old seedlings of twelve diverse wheat genotypes carrying different nitrogen use efficiency traits in three different root growth media i.e. hydroponic culture (HC), solid nutrient free (in terms of plant nutrients; vermiculite and perlite mixture; VPC) culture and soil culture (SC). We observed that both nitrate starvation and root growth media modulate overall root system architecture. However, the ability of such modulation is genotype specific. Further, the solid nutrient free media, in contrast to solution culture (HC), induced much pronounced effect on overall architecture indicating their nitrate foraging ability in natural soil condition. Among the two solid media, VPC has caused more exploratory root morphology in nitrate deficient condition. In general the effect of nitrate stress is more predominant in VPC followed by HC than SC. Among genotypes, NP846 and HS1097-17 were found to be most responsive towards nitrogen starvation condition and root growth media as far as root traits are concerned.

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Acknowledgements

The present work was financially supported by ICAR-NRCPB institutional funds. Authors would like to acknowledge the Project Director of ICAR-NRCPB, New Delhi for his support and encouragement at various levels to execute this work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research)-National Research Centre on Plant Biotechnology, Pusa Campus, New Delhi, 110012, India

    Subodh Kumar Sinha, Manju Rani, Amresh Kumar & Pranab Kumar Mandal

  2. ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research)-Division of Soil Sciences & Agricultural Chemistry, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Pusa Campus, New Delhi, 110012, India

    Sarvendra Kumar

  3. ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research)-Indian Institute of Wheat and Barley Research, Karnal, 132001, India

    K. Venkatesh

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  1. Subodh Kumar Sinha
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  2. Manju Rani
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  3. Amresh Kumar
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  4. Sarvendra Kumar
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  5. K. Venkatesh
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  6. Pranab Kumar Mandal
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Correspondence to Pranab Kumar Mandal.

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Sinha, S.K., Rani, M., Kumar, A. et al. Natural variation in root system architecture in diverse wheat genotypes grown under different nitrate conditions and root growth media. Theor. Exp. Plant Physiol. 30, 223–234 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40626-018-0117-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40626-018-0117-2

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