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Reduced frequency of lateral root branching improves N capture from low-N soils in maize

Suboptimal nitrogen (N) availability is a primary constraint for crop production in developing countries, while in developed countries, intensive N fertilization is a primary economic, energy, and environmental cost for crop production. We tested the hypothesis that under low-N conditions, maize (Ze...

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Autores principales: Zhan, Ai, Lynch, Jonathan P.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Oxford University Press 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4378636/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25680794
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erv007
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author Zhan, Ai
Lynch, Jonathan P.
author_facet Zhan, Ai
Lynch, Jonathan P.
author_sort Zhan, Ai
collection PubMed
description Suboptimal nitrogen (N) availability is a primary constraint for crop production in developing countries, while in developed countries, intensive N fertilization is a primary economic, energy, and environmental cost for crop production. We tested the hypothesis that under low-N conditions, maize (Zea mays) lines with few but long (FL) lateral roots would have greater axial root elongation, deeper rooting, and greater N acquisition than lines with many but short (MS) lateral roots. Maize recombinant inbred lines contrasting in lateral root number and length were grown with adequate and suboptimal N in greenhouse mesocosms and in the field in the USA and South Africa (SA). In low-N mesocosms, the FL phenotype had substantially reduced root respiration and greater rooting depth than the MS phenotype. In low-N fields in the USA and SA, the FL phenotype had greater rooting depth, shoot N content, leaf photosynthesis, and shoot biomass than the MS phenotype. The FL phenotype yielded 31.5% more than the MS phenotype under low N in the USA. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that sparse but long lateral roots improve N capture from low-N soils. These results with maize probably pertain to other species. The FL lateral root phenotype merits consideration as a selection target for greater crop N efficiency.
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spelling pubmed-43786362015-06-10 Reduced frequency of lateral root branching improves N capture from low-N soils in maize Zhan, Ai Lynch, Jonathan P. J Exp Bot Research Paper Suboptimal nitrogen (N) availability is a primary constraint for crop production in developing countries, while in developed countries, intensive N fertilization is a primary economic, energy, and environmental cost for crop production. We tested the hypothesis that under low-N conditions, maize (Zea mays) lines with few but long (FL) lateral roots would have greater axial root elongation, deeper rooting, and greater N acquisition than lines with many but short (MS) lateral roots. Maize recombinant inbred lines contrasting in lateral root number and length were grown with adequate and suboptimal N in greenhouse mesocosms and in the field in the USA and South Africa (SA). In low-N mesocosms, the FL phenotype had substantially reduced root respiration and greater rooting depth than the MS phenotype. In low-N fields in the USA and SA, the FL phenotype had greater rooting depth, shoot N content, leaf photosynthesis, and shoot biomass than the MS phenotype. The FL phenotype yielded 31.5% more than the MS phenotype under low N in the USA. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that sparse but long lateral roots improve N capture from low-N soils. These results with maize probably pertain to other species. The FL lateral root phenotype merits consideration as a selection target for greater crop N efficiency. Oxford University Press 2015-04 2015-02-13 /pmc/articles/PMC4378636/ /pubmed/25680794 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erv007 Text en © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Experimental Biology. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Paper
Zhan, Ai
Lynch, Jonathan P.
Reduced frequency of lateral root branching improves N capture from low-N soils in maize
title Reduced frequency of lateral root branching improves N capture from low-N soils in maize
title_full Reduced frequency of lateral root branching improves N capture from low-N soils in maize
title_fullStr Reduced frequency of lateral root branching improves N capture from low-N soils in maize
title_full_unstemmed Reduced frequency of lateral root branching improves N capture from low-N soils in maize
title_short Reduced frequency of lateral root branching improves N capture from low-N soils in maize
title_sort reduced frequency of lateral root branching improves n capture from low-n soils in maize
topic Research Paper
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4378636/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25680794
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erv007
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