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Dispersed white roots in red beetroot influence the accuracy of root identification based on colours for intercropping studies

PURPOSE: Beetroot is a model crop for studying root competition in intercropping systems because its red-coloured roots facilitate non-destructive visual discrimination with other root systems of intercropped plants. However, beetroot also has white roots, which could alter how root competition is i...

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Autores principales: Xie, Yue, Shanmugam, Sindhuja, Kristensen, Hanne Lakkenborg
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10492384/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37684598
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12870-023-04414-5
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author Xie, Yue
Shanmugam, Sindhuja
Kristensen, Hanne Lakkenborg
author_facet Xie, Yue
Shanmugam, Sindhuja
Kristensen, Hanne Lakkenborg
author_sort Xie, Yue
collection PubMed
description PURPOSE: Beetroot is a model crop for studying root competition in intercropping systems because its red-coloured roots facilitate non-destructive visual discrimination with other root systems of intercropped plants. However, beetroot also has white roots, which could alter how root competition is interpreted. Here we investigated the quantity of white versus red roots in beetroot to quantify the effect of this phenomenon. METHODS: Beetroot was mono-cropped or inter-cropped with white cabbage in a field trial. The distribution of beetroot roots was recorded to 2.5 m soil depth on three dates following the minirhizotron method. Roots in each 0.5 m soil layer were counted and categorised into groups based on colour (white roots, coloured roots, and white roots traced back to be coloured) to investigate the influence of white roots on accuracy of root registration. A pot experiment was conducted with three cultivars to verify if white roots are a general characteristic of beetroot. RESULTS: White roots in mono-cropped beetroot represented 2.5–4.8% of total roots, on average, across the rooted soil profile. However, white roots represented 6.9% and 11.6% of total roots in the deepest soil layer during August and October, respectively. White roots caused mono-cropped beetroot roots to be underestimated by 1–22% based on root colour discrimination. However, tracing white roots backwards and forwards to coloured parts of roots reduced underestimates to 0.5–15%. Intercropping did not influence the traceability of white roots compared to monocropping. The highest occurrence of white roots appeared during the early growth period and in the deepest soil layers, indicating a linkage to younger roots or higher root proliferation rates. CONCLUSION: Beetroot represents a model crop for visual studies linking eco-physiology and root proliferation. The white roots of beetroot must be incorporated by studies of root competition in intercropping systems that use colour as a criterion. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12870-023-04414-5.
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spelling pubmed-104923842023-09-10 Dispersed white roots in red beetroot influence the accuracy of root identification based on colours for intercropping studies Xie, Yue Shanmugam, Sindhuja Kristensen, Hanne Lakkenborg BMC Plant Biol Research Article PURPOSE: Beetroot is a model crop for studying root competition in intercropping systems because its red-coloured roots facilitate non-destructive visual discrimination with other root systems of intercropped plants. However, beetroot also has white roots, which could alter how root competition is interpreted. Here we investigated the quantity of white versus red roots in beetroot to quantify the effect of this phenomenon. METHODS: Beetroot was mono-cropped or inter-cropped with white cabbage in a field trial. The distribution of beetroot roots was recorded to 2.5 m soil depth on three dates following the minirhizotron method. Roots in each 0.5 m soil layer were counted and categorised into groups based on colour (white roots, coloured roots, and white roots traced back to be coloured) to investigate the influence of white roots on accuracy of root registration. A pot experiment was conducted with three cultivars to verify if white roots are a general characteristic of beetroot. RESULTS: White roots in mono-cropped beetroot represented 2.5–4.8% of total roots, on average, across the rooted soil profile. However, white roots represented 6.9% and 11.6% of total roots in the deepest soil layer during August and October, respectively. White roots caused mono-cropped beetroot roots to be underestimated by 1–22% based on root colour discrimination. However, tracing white roots backwards and forwards to coloured parts of roots reduced underestimates to 0.5–15%. Intercropping did not influence the traceability of white roots compared to monocropping. The highest occurrence of white roots appeared during the early growth period and in the deepest soil layers, indicating a linkage to younger roots or higher root proliferation rates. CONCLUSION: Beetroot represents a model crop for visual studies linking eco-physiology and root proliferation. The white roots of beetroot must be incorporated by studies of root competition in intercropping systems that use colour as a criterion. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12870-023-04414-5. BioMed Central 2023-09-09 /pmc/articles/PMC10492384/ /pubmed/37684598 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12870-023-04414-5 Text en © The Author(s) 2023 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) . The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) ) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated in a credit line to the data.
spellingShingle Research Article
Xie, Yue
Shanmugam, Sindhuja
Kristensen, Hanne Lakkenborg
Dispersed white roots in red beetroot influence the accuracy of root identification based on colours for intercropping studies
title Dispersed white roots in red beetroot influence the accuracy of root identification based on colours for intercropping studies
title_full Dispersed white roots in red beetroot influence the accuracy of root identification based on colours for intercropping studies
title_fullStr Dispersed white roots in red beetroot influence the accuracy of root identification based on colours for intercropping studies
title_full_unstemmed Dispersed white roots in red beetroot influence the accuracy of root identification based on colours for intercropping studies
title_short Dispersed white roots in red beetroot influence the accuracy of root identification based on colours for intercropping studies
title_sort dispersed white roots in red beetroot influence the accuracy of root identification based on colours for intercropping studies
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10492384/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37684598
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12870-023-04414-5
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