TY - JOUR
T1 - Harnessing root-foraging capacity to improve nutrient-use efficiency for sustainable maize production
AU - Jing, Jingying
AU - Gao, Wei
AU - Cheng, Lingyun
AU - Wang, Xin
AU - Duan, Fengying
AU - Yuan, Lixing
AU - Rengel, Zed
AU - Zhang, Fusuo
AU - Li, Haigang
AU - Cahill, James F.
AU - Shen, Jianbo
PY - 2022/4/1
Y1 - 2022/4/1
N2 - Producing more food with less input is imperative in feeding the increasing world population. Here, for the first time we characterize the multipartite responses of maize to nutrient-rich patches and demonstrate significant synergistic effects between root morphological and physiological responses on improving nutrient-use efficiency and yield. Our results showed that maize root length, lateral root formation, acid phosphatase (APase) secretion, and expression of ammonium transporter genes increased in the ammonium-containing patches; moreover, ammonium-induced rhizosphere acidification enhanced activity of APase. These root responses were associated with improved maize nutrition and growth even with reduced fertilizer input, suggesting an adaptive benefit of synergistic root foraging strategies. These new findings improve our understanding of root-foraging responses to nutrient-specific cues and are crucial for engineering root and rhizosphere properties to improve nutrient-use efficiency for sustainable crop production.
AB - Producing more food with less input is imperative in feeding the increasing world population. Here, for the first time we characterize the multipartite responses of maize to nutrient-rich patches and demonstrate significant synergistic effects between root morphological and physiological responses on improving nutrient-use efficiency and yield. Our results showed that maize root length, lateral root formation, acid phosphatase (APase) secretion, and expression of ammonium transporter genes increased in the ammonium-containing patches; moreover, ammonium-induced rhizosphere acidification enhanced activity of APase. These root responses were associated with improved maize nutrition and growth even with reduced fertilizer input, suggesting an adaptive benefit of synergistic root foraging strategies. These new findings improve our understanding of root-foraging responses to nutrient-specific cues and are crucial for engineering root and rhizosphere properties to improve nutrient-use efficiency for sustainable crop production.
KW - Heterogeneous nutrient supply
KW - Maize
KW - Rhizosphere processes
KW - Root management
KW - Root proliferation
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85123803527&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.fcr.2022.108462
DO - 10.1016/j.fcr.2022.108462
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85123803527
SN - 0378-4290
VL - 279
JO - Field Crops Research
JF - Field Crops Research
M1 - 108462
ER -
