Developmental responses of crop root system to water stress and its physiological basis

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This study aimed to investigate the responses of crop root system to water stress. Special attention was paid to plastic responses exhibited by component roots that consist of the root system.Specifically, first developmental and functional plasticity of rice root system to various water regimes was evaluated. The water regimes included soil moisture fluctuations such as water stress followed by rewatering simulating raining after drought, and waterlogging, drought and then rewatering simulating rainfed lowland conditions. Next, we examined the effects of water stress on senescence and turn over of root system for maize, cowpea and rice. Finally, we attempted to quantitatively evaluate the water supply ability of root tuber of sweetpotato under water stress conditions.Results revealed that root system development and morphology are greatly affected by soil water conditions, such large plasticity of root system ensures the growth of plant under water stress, and the plasticity exhibited by the root system is the integrated results of differentiated responses of component roots to the stress. Further, we found that root tuber of sweetpotato may play a substantial role in supplying water to shoot especially when soil dries. These findings provides with bases on the role of root system in crop drought tolerance, and are expected to contribute to the progress of breeding program for drought tolerance and production technology in drought prone areas.