Maize

Root characteristics associated with drought tolerance in maize

Persons in charge: Sebastian Steinemann, Peter Westermeier
Duration: 01.05.2011 – 30.04.2014
Funding: Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment and Public Health

Project description:

The most important abiotic factors affecting crop yield are soil infertility and drought. According to recent climate models, water availability will get even worse, especially during the growing season. In order to counteract this process and to guarantee food supply for a fast growing world population, breeding for drought tolerant maize receives more and more attention.
One of the most promising traits to improve drought tolerance described in literature is root morphology. Under water limiting conditions, acquisition of soil water is a crucial process. Therefore, root morphologies that enable the plant to access more and deeper soil areas, confer the ability to withstand drought stress. Because traditional approaches to determine root morphology in the field are expensive and labour-intensive, this approach has not been incorporated in practical breeding programs so far.
The main objective of this project is to establish root phenotyping in field trials. Through the development of an assay, that combines basic molecular biology approaches and quantitative PCR techniques, measurement of authentic root expansion will become feasible for high sample throughput in a more convenient way. It will facilitate the collection of various root parameters like root mass or rooting depth for many different genotypes under field conditions.
Another aim of this project is to use this novel approach for the detection of phenotypic differences in European maize breeding material in the field. Subsequently, this root data will be correlated with state of the art above ground phenotyping parameters and the target characteristic yield under drought stress, respectively.
This project facilitates the utilization of root characteristics in breeding for drought tolerant maize. Moreover, the results will substantially contribute to the genetic dissection of root morphology and root associated drought tolerance.