Maize brace roots provide stalk anchorage

Plant Direct
J. W. ReneauErin E. Sparks

Abstract

Mechanical failure, known as lodging, negatively impacts yield and grain quality in crops. Limiting crop loss from lodging requires an understanding of the plant traits that contribute to lodging-resistance. In maize, specialized aerial brace roots are reported to reduce root lodging. However, their direct contribution to plant biomechanics has not been measured. In this manuscript, we use a non-destructive field-based mechanical test on plants before and after the removal of brace roots. This precisely determines the contribution of brace roots to establish a rigid base (i.e. stalk anchorage) that limits plant deflection in maize. These measurements demonstrate that the more brace root whorls that contact the soil, the greater their overall contribution to anchorage, but that the contributions of each whorl to anchorage were not equal. Previous studies demonstrated that the number of nodes that produce brace roots is correlated with flowering time in maize. To determine if flowering time selection alters the brace root contribution to anchorage, a subset of the Hallauer's Tusón tropical population was analyzed. Despite significant variation in flowering time and anchorage, selection neither altered the number of brace root who...Continue Reading

References

Jun 20, 2012·Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America·Hsiao-Yi HungJames B Holland
Feb 7, 2017·Nature Genetics·J Alberto Romero NavarroEdward S Buckler
Jan 25, 2018·The Plant Journal : for Cell and Molecular Biology·Zhihai ZhangZhongwei Lin
Oct 17, 2018·The Plant Journal : for Cell and Molecular Biology·Jinrui ShiDennis O'Neill
Sep 10, 2019·Plant Methods·Douglas D CookDaniel J Robertson
Oct 17, 2019·Genetics·Randall J WisserArnel Hallauer
Mar 3, 2020·Annual Review of Plant Biology·Natalie M ClarkRosangela Sozzani
Oct 1, 2020·Applications in Plant Sciences·Lindsay ErndweinErin E Sparks

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Citations

Jan 9, 2021·Current Opinion in Plant Biology·Ashley N HostetlerErin E Sparks

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Software Mentioned

rptR
reshape2
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ggplot2
dplyr
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