Abstract
Wheat is an important cereal crop worldwide that often suffers from moisture deficits at the reproductive stage. Polyethylene glycol (PEG)-treated hydroponic conditions create negative osmotic potential which is compared with moisture deficit stress. An experiment was conducted in a growth chamber to study the effects of PEG on root hair morphology and associated traits of wheat varieties. Plants of 13 wheat varieties were grown hydroponically and three different doses of PEG 6000 (w/v): 0% (control), 0.3% and 0.6% (less than −1 bar) were imposed on 60 days after sowing for 20 days’ duration. A low PEG concentration was imposed to observe how initial low moisture stress might affect root hair development. PEG-treated hydroponic culture significantly decreased root hair diameter and length. Estimated surface area reduction of root hairs at the main axes of wheat plants was around nine times at the 0.6% PEG level compared to the control plants. Decrease in root hair diameter and length under PEG-induced culture decreased “potential” root surface area per unit length of main root axis. A negative association between panicle traits, length and dry weight and the main axis length of young roots indicated competition for carbon during their development. Data provides insight into how a low PEG level might alter root hair development.
Highlights
Wheat is grown on over 216 million hectares of land, yielding 634 million tons worldwide by 30 million farmers [1]
Root hair length and diameter of the root hairs gradually decreased with increasing levels of Polyethylene glycol (PEG) (p < 0.001, Table 1)
Even though root hair density was slightly increased under osmotic stress, estimated overall surface area provided solely by the root hairs per mm2 main axis was about nine times less at 0.6% PEG level compared to control, due to a severe decrease in diameter and length of root hairs (p = 0.003, Table 1)
Summary
Wheat is grown on over 216 million hectares of land, yielding 634 million tons worldwide by 30 million farmers [1]. In Bangladesh, wheat is the second most important cereal crop after rice. It grows in 11% of the cropped area in rabi season and yields around 1.0 million tons [1,2]. To fulfill domestic demand of cereals, Bangladesh requires importing 3.0 million tons of wheat every year to meet the yield gap [3]. Unfavorable environmental conditions including heat stress, drought stress, and salinity are the main reasons for over 52% of the difference between current and recorded wheat production [1]. Efforts are required to overcome various limiting factors that shrink wheat production areas including abiotic stresses. In Bangladesh, drought stress which alone decreased cereal grain production by 3.5 million metric tons in the year 1994–1995 [4]
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