TY - JOUR
T1 - Morphological and physiological traits of roots and their relationships with water productivity in water-saving and drought-resistant rice
AU - Chu, Guang
AU - Chen, Tingting
AU - Wang, Zhiqin
AU - Yang, Jianchang
AU - ZHANG, Jianhua
N1 - Funding Information:
We are grateful for grants from the National Basic Research Program (2012CB114306), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC-IRRI Joint Research Project 31061140457; General Project 31071360; 31271641), the National Key Technology Support Program of China (2011BAD16B14; 2012BAD04B08), China National Public Welfare Industry (Agriculture) Plan (200803030; 201203079), Shanghai Key Project for Agriculture (2010-1-1), Jiangsu Advantages of Key Construction Projects (JS 2011,), and Jiangsu Creation Program for Post-graduation Students (CXZZ13_0902).
PY - 2014/6
Y1 - 2014/6
N2 - Water-saving and drought-resistant rice (WDR) could substantially reduce irrigation water and meanwhile produce higher grain yield compared with paddy rice under water-saving irrigation. The mechanism underlain, however, is yet to be understood. We investigated if improved root traits would contribute to an increase in water productivity in WDR. Two rice varieties, each for WDR and paddy rice, were field-grown with two irrigation methods, continuous flooding (CF) and alternate wetting and drying (AWD) irrigation, which were imposed during the whole growing season. Under CF, grain yield, water productivity (grain yield over amount irrigation water and precipitation) and root morpho-physiological traits, such as root biomass and root oxidation activity (ROA), showed no significant difference between WDR and paddy rice. Under AWD, however, WDR exhibited greater root dry weight, root length density, ROA, total absorbing surface area and active absorbing surface area of roots, greater zeatin (Z). +. zeatin riboside (ZR) contents in both roots and leaves, and higher activities of enzymes involved in sucrose-to-starch conversion in grains during grain filing, in relative to paddy rice. Grain yield under AWD was significantly decreased for paddy rice compared with that under CF, but showed no significant difference for WDR between the two irrigation treatments. The WDR variety increased grain yield by 9.2-13.4% and water productivity by 9.0-13.7% over the paddy rice variety under AWD. The root dry weight was significantly correlated with shoot dry weight, and ROA and root Z. +. ZR content were significantly correlated with leaf photosynthetic rate, Z. +. ZR content in leaves and activities of key enzymes involved in sucrose-to-starch conversion in grains. Collectively, the data suggest that improved morpho-physiological traits, as showing a greater root biomass, root length density, ROA and root Z. +. ZR content, contributes to higher grain yield and water productivity for WDR under water-saving irrigation.
AB - Water-saving and drought-resistant rice (WDR) could substantially reduce irrigation water and meanwhile produce higher grain yield compared with paddy rice under water-saving irrigation. The mechanism underlain, however, is yet to be understood. We investigated if improved root traits would contribute to an increase in water productivity in WDR. Two rice varieties, each for WDR and paddy rice, were field-grown with two irrigation methods, continuous flooding (CF) and alternate wetting and drying (AWD) irrigation, which were imposed during the whole growing season. Under CF, grain yield, water productivity (grain yield over amount irrigation water and precipitation) and root morpho-physiological traits, such as root biomass and root oxidation activity (ROA), showed no significant difference between WDR and paddy rice. Under AWD, however, WDR exhibited greater root dry weight, root length density, ROA, total absorbing surface area and active absorbing surface area of roots, greater zeatin (Z). +. zeatin riboside (ZR) contents in both roots and leaves, and higher activities of enzymes involved in sucrose-to-starch conversion in grains during grain filing, in relative to paddy rice. Grain yield under AWD was significantly decreased for paddy rice compared with that under CF, but showed no significant difference for WDR between the two irrigation treatments. The WDR variety increased grain yield by 9.2-13.4% and water productivity by 9.0-13.7% over the paddy rice variety under AWD. The root dry weight was significantly correlated with shoot dry weight, and ROA and root Z. +. ZR content were significantly correlated with leaf photosynthetic rate, Z. +. ZR content in leaves and activities of key enzymes involved in sucrose-to-starch conversion in grains. Collectively, the data suggest that improved morpho-physiological traits, as showing a greater root biomass, root length density, ROA and root Z. +. ZR content, contributes to higher grain yield and water productivity for WDR under water-saving irrigation.
KW - Alternate wetting and drying
KW - Grain filling
KW - Grain yield
KW - Root morpho-physiological traits
KW - Water productivity
KW - Water-saving and drought-resistant rice (Oryza sativa L.)
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84899654317&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.fcr.2013.11.006
DO - 10.1016/j.fcr.2013.11.006
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:84899654317
SN - 0378-4290
VL - 162
SP - 108
EP - 119
JO - Field Crops Research
JF - Field Crops Research
ER -
