4.7 Review

Rhizosheath: An adaptive root trait to improve plant tolerance to phosphorus and water deficits?

Journal

PLANT CELL AND ENVIRONMENT
Volume 45, Issue 10, Pages 2861-2874

Publisher

WILEY
DOI: 10.1111/pce.14395

Keywords

alternate wetting and drying cycles; drought; QTLs; water uptake

Categories

Funding

  1. National Natural Science Foundation of China
  2. National Key R&D Program of China
  3. Newton Advanced Fellowship

Ask authors/readers for more resources

This review explores the impact of rhizosheath development on plant water uptake and phosphorus acquisition in dry soils, finding that it is influenced by genetic, biochemical, and microbial factors. Plants with longer and denser root hairs have greater rhizosheath development and phosphorus uptake efficiency, enhancing water absorption and improving plant survival in drought conditions.
Drought and nutrient limitations adversely affect crop yields, with below-ground traits enhancing crop production in these resource-poor environments. This review explores the interacting biological, chemical and physical factors that determine rhizosheath (soil adhering to the root system) development, and its influence on plant water uptake and phosphorus acquisition in dry soils. Identification of quantitative trait loci for rhizosheath development indicate it is genetically determined, but the microbial community also directly (polysaccharide exudation) and indirectly (altered root hair development) affect its extent. Plants with longer and denser root hairs had greater rhizosheath development and increased P uptake efficiency. Moreover, enhanced rhizosheath formation maintains contact at the root-soil interface thereby assisting water uptake from drying soil, consequently improving plant survival in droughted environments. Nevertheless, it can be difficult to determine if rhizosheath development is a cause or consequence of improved plant adaptation to dry and nutrient-depleted soils. Does rhizosheath development directly enhance plant water and phosphorus use, or do other tolerance mechanisms allow plants to invest more resources in rhizosheath development? Much more work is required on the interacting genetic, physical, biochemical and microbial mechanisms that determine rhizosheath development, to demonstrate that selection for rhizosheath development is a viable crop improvement strategy.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.7
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available