ORCID Profile
0000-0002-6251-1231
Current Organisation
Forschungszentrum Jülich
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Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2011
DOI: 10.1071/FP11164
Abstract: Plant phenotyping is an emerging discipline in plant biology. Quantitative measurements of functional and structural traits help to better understand gene–environment interactions and support breeding for improved resource use efficiency of important crops such as bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.). Here we provide an overview of state-of-the-art phenotyping approaches addressing three aspects of resource use efficiency in plants: belowground roots, aboveground shoots and transport/allocation processes. We demonstrate the capacity of high-precision methods to measure plant function or structural traits non-invasively, stating ex les wherever possible. Ideally, high-precision methods are complemented by fast and high-throughput technologies. High-throughput phenotyping can be applied in the laboratory using automated data acquisition, as well as in the field, where imaging spectroscopy opens a new path to understand plant function non-invasively. For ex le, we demonstrate how magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can resolve root structure and separate root systems under resource competition, how automated fluorescence imaging (PAM fluorometry) in combination with automated shape detection allows for high-throughput screening of photosynthetic traits and how imaging spectrometers can be used to quantify pigment concentration, sun-induced fluorescence and potentially photosynthetic quantum yield. We propose that these phenotyping techniques, combined with mechanistic knowledge on plant structure–function relationships, will open new research directions in whole-plant ecophysiology and may assist breeding for varieties with enhanced resource use efficiency varieties.
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 13-09-2022
Abstract: Although regulation of stomatal conductance is widely assumed to be the most important plant response to soil drying, the picture is incomplete when hydraulic conductance from soil to the leaf, upstream of the stomata, is not considered. Here, we investigated to what extent soil drying reduces the conductance between soil and leaf, whether this reduction differs between species, how it affects stomatal regulation, and where in the hydraulic pathway it occurs. To this end, we noninvasively and continuously measured the total root water uptake rate, soil water potential, leaf water potential, and stomatal conductance of 4-week-old, pot-grown maize (Zea mays) and faba bean (Vicia faba) plants during 4 days of water restriction. In both species, the soil–plant conductance, excluding stomatal conductance, declined exponentially with soil drying and was reduced to 50% above a soil water potential of −0.1 MPa, which is far from the permanent wilting point. This loss of conductance has immediate consequences for leaf water potential and the associated stomatal regulation. Both stomatal conductance and soil–plant conductance declined at a higher rate in faba bean than in maize. Estimations of the water potential at the root surface and an incomplete recovery 22 h after rewatering indicate that the loss of conductance, at least partly, occurred inside the plants, for ex le, through root suberization or altered aquaporin gene expression. Our findings suggest that differences in the stomatal sensitivity among plant species are partly explained by the sensitivity of root hydraulic conductance to soil drying.
Publisher: Copernicus GmbH
Date: 27-03-2022
DOI: 10.5194/EGUSPHERE-EGU22-5306
Abstract: & & Plant water uptake is often a limiting factor for above-ground productivity and therefore models of soil-vegetation-atmosphere transfer strongly rely on a precise characterization of the spatial organization of root systems. However, roots display plasticity in morphology and physiology under environmental fluctuations. Plants, in fact, can adjust their root length distribution to soil moisture. The phenomenon of hydropatterning consists of preferential lateral root development in water-rich soil areas and suppression of lateral root growth in dry soil areas. The preferential root growth in wet soil areas was previously observed in large portions of root systems exposed to wet soil patches, including erse types of roots and both pre-existing and newly grown roots. Here we refer to this phenomenon as & #8220 global hydropatterning& #8221 . However, the capacity of the root systems to adapt to fluctuating soil water availability at daily time scales, for ex le after a rainfall event, are less clear.& & & & We conducted an experiment with the aim to answer the following research questions: (a) can we detect global hydropatterning in response to a water pulse in a hydraulically isolated soil layer, (b) how fast does global hydropatterning occur and (c) does the phenomenon get interrupted in the previously wetted layer and promoted in another layer when a second pulse is applied there?& & & & We grew maize in 45 cm long cylindrical soil columns organized in four hydraulically isolated soil layers separated by vaseline barriers. After six days of water depletion by the plant, water pulses to reach 15% VWC were injected specifically into selected layers while the remaining layers remained unwatered.& & & & For quantifying dynamic responses of the root systems to the water pulses, we measured root distribution repeatedly and non-destructively every 48 hours using a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) for four weeks. Vertical soil moisture distribution was quantified using the Soil Water Pro& #64257 ler (SWaP) [1].& & & & A preliminary analysis indicates that roots grew preferentially in layers where water pulses had been applied and that allocation to root growth changed dynamically in response to water pulses. Our non-invasive measurements suggest that the global hydropatterning appears in less than 48 hours, and that plants adjust root growth to highly dynamic soil moisture conditions.& & & & A more detailed analysis of root growth rates in response to water pulses in different soil layers will be presented and will provide insights into the response time of maize root systems to changing soil moisture conditions and in how far allocation of carbon to different portions of the root system is an absolute response to soil moisture or a relative response to soil moisture distribution.& & & & & & & & & [1] van Dusschoten, D., Kochs, J., Kuppe, C., Sydoruk, V.A., Couvreur, V., P& #64258 ugfelder, D., Postma, J.A., 2020. Spatially resolved root water uptake determination using a precise soil water sensor. Plant Physiol. 0.1104 p.20.00488& &
Publisher: Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Date: 15-06-2023
DOI: 10.1007/S11104-023-06108-1
Abstract: Potato tubers comprise 83% water at harvest, but surprisingly few studies address tuber water relations in drying soil. This study aims to understand whether soil drying alters tuber water fluxes and their effect on tuber volume growth. Tuber water content and volume growth were investigated every 4 h using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) during soil drying and re-watering, with leaf gas exchange, leaf water potential and foliar abscisic acid (ABA) concentration measured concurrently. Tubers of well-watered plants showed a diurnal growth pattern with their volume and average water content (TWC) increasing overnight. Withholding irrigation caused typical shoot drought stress responses (e.g. stomatal closure), d ened fluctuations in total TWC and paused nocturnal volume growth. Irrespective of soil moisture, tubers lost water (likely to the shoot) during the daytime when the plant transpires, while tuber water loss to the soil was minimal. Re-watering restored tuber volume growth and average TWC due to root water uptake and transport to the tuber. Potato tubers can supply water to the shoot. Nocturnal water influx needs to exceed daytime water efflux for net tuber volume growth, which should be considered in irrigation management.
Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 16-12-2022
DOI: 10.1093/JXB/ERAB551
Abstract: Seedling establishment is the first stage of crop productivity, and root phenotypes at seed emergence are critical to a successful start of shoot growth as well as for water and nutrient uptake. In this study, we investigate seedling establishment in winter wheat utilizing a newly developed workflow based on magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Using the eight parents of the MAGIC (multi-parent advanced generation inter-cross) population we analysed the 4D root architecture of 288 in idual seedlings grown in natural soils with plant neighbors over 3 d of development. Time of root and shoot emergence, total length, angle, and depth of the axile roots varied significantly among these genotypes. The temporal data resolved rates of elongation of primary roots and first and second seminal root pairs. Genotypes with slowly elongating primary roots had rapidly elongating first and second seminal root pairs and vice versa, resulting in variation in root system architecture mediated not only by root angle but also by initiation and relative elongation of axile roots. We demonstrated that our novel MRI workflow with a unique planting design and automated measurements allowed medium throughput phenotyping of wheat roots in 4D and could give new insights into regulation of root system architecture.
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Date: 2012
DOI: 10.1071/FP12049
Abstract: The majority of experiments in plant biology use plants grown in some kind of container or pot. We conducted a meta-analysis on 65 studies that analysed the effect of pot size on growth and underlying variables. On average, a doubling of the pot size increased biomass production by 43%. Further analysis of pot size effects on the underlying components of growth suggests that reduced growth in smaller pots is caused mainly by a reduction in photosynthesis per unit leaf area, rather than by changes in leaf morphology or biomass allocation. The appropriate pot size will logically depend on the size of the plants growing in them. Based on various lines of evidence we suggest that an appropriate pot size is one in which the plant biomass does not exceed 1 g L–1. In current research practice ~65% of the experiments exceed that threshold. We suggest that researchers need to carefully consider the pot size in their experiments, as small pots may change experimental results and defy the purpose of the experiment.
No related grants have been discovered for Dagmar van Dusschoten.