Root phenotypes for the future
Anna Amtmann, Malcolm J. Bennett, Amelia Henry
Abstract
Root phenotypes play profoundly important roles supporting plant growth and their adaptive responses to myriad environmental stresses. For example, architecture-scale traits such as root angle can have a major impact on foraging efficiency for immobile and mobile soil nutrients such as phosphate and nitrate, respectively (Schneider et al., 2022). Increasing evidence supports the importance of anatomical-scale traits, such as root hair length and xylem size, conferring abiotic stress tolerance in crops (Cai et al., 2022; Kohli et al., 2022; Cornelis & Ora, 2022), whilst major steps are being made to dissect molecular-scale adaptive mechanisms, such as ways roots detoxify metals and metalloids (Kirk et al., 2022; Podar & Maathuis, 2022). Knowledge of these root phenotypes and their underlying regulatory genes is vital for developing future crop varieties better adapted to the challenges presented by global climate change and the pressing need to support more sustainable agricultural practices. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.