Increasing root-lower characteristics improves drought tolerance in cotton cultivars at the seedling stage

Abstract

Drought is an important abiotic stress factor in cotton production. The root system architecture (RSA) of cotton shows high plasticity which can alleviate drought-related stress under drought stress (DS) conditions; however, this alleviation is cultivar dependent. Therefore, this study estimated the genetic variability of RSA in cotton under DS. Using the paper-based growth system, we assessed the RSA variability in 80 cotton cultivars at the seedling stage, with 0 and 10% polyethylene glycol 6000 (PEG6000) as the control (CK) and DS treatment, respectively. An analysis of 23 above-ground and root traits in the 80 cotton cultivars revealed different responses to DS. On the 10th day after DS treatment, the degree of variation in the RSA traits under DS (5–55%) was greater than that of CK (5–49%). The 80 cultivars were divided into drought-tolerant cultivars (group 1), intermediate drought-tolerant cultivars (group 2), and drought-sensitive cultivars (group 3) based on their comprehensive evaluation values of drought resistance. Under DS, the root length-lower, root area-lower, root volume-lower, and root length density-lower were significantly reduced by 63, 71, 76, and 4% in the drought-sensitive cultivars compared to CK. Notably, the drought-tolerant cultivars maintained their root length-lower, root area-lower, root volume-lower, and root length density–lower attributes. Compared to CK, the root diameter (0–2 mm)-lower increased by 21% in group 1 but decreased by 3 and 64% in groups 2 and 3, respectively, under DS. Additionally, the drought-tolerant cultivars displayed a plastic response under DS that was characterized by an increase in the root-lower characteristics. Drought resistance was positively correlated with the root area-lower and root length density-lower. Overall, the RSA of the different cotton cultivars varied greatly under DS. Therefore, important root traits, such as the root-lower traits, provide great insights for exploring whether drought-tolerant cotton cultivars can effectively withstand adverse environments.