Root plasticity and Pi recycling within plants contribute to low-P tolerance in Tibetan wild barley

BACKGROUND: Barley is a low phosphorus (P) demand cereal crop. Tibetan wild barley, as a progenitor of cultivated barley, has revealed outstanding ability of tolerance to low-P stress. However, the underlying mechanisms of low-P adaption and the relevant genetic controlling are still unclear. RESULTS: We identified low-P tolerant barley lines in a doubled-haploid (DH) population derived from an elite Tibetan wild barley accession and a high-yield cultivar. The tolerant lines revealed greater root plasticity in the terms of lateral root length, compared to low-P sensitive lines, in response to low-P stress. By integrating the QTLs associated with root length and root transcriptomic profiling, candidate genes encoding isoflavone reductase, nitrate reductase, nitrate transporter and transcriptional factor MYB were identified. The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) involved the growth of lateral root, Pi transport within cells as well as from roots to shoots contributed to the differences between low-P tolerant line L138 and low-P sensitive lines L73 in their ability of P acquisition and utilization. CONCLUSIONS: The plasticity of root system is an important trait for barley to tolerate low-P stress. The low-P tolerance in the elite DH line derived from a cross of Tibetan wild barley and cultivated barley is characterized by enhanced growth of lateral root and Pi recycling within plants under low-P stress. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12870-019-1949-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.