Abstract
The efficient use of resources such as water and nutrients by plants is increasingly important as the world population food demand continues to grow. With the increased production of lentil in the temperate zones of North America, improvement in yield needs to be maintained. The use of wild lentil genotypes as sources of genetic diversity for introgression into cultivated lentil is an important breeding strategy, but little is known about their root systems. We evaluated the root systems of five wild lentil species and Lens culinaris under fully watered conditions. Plants were grown in 60 cm tubes containing equal volumes of soil collected from the reconstructed A, B, and C horizons. Significant differences were observed for root traits and fine root distribution between and within species and the proportion of root biomass partitioned into each soil layer was unique for each genotype. We also observed variability in nodule number and nodule shape within and between genotypes. Some genotypes more efficiently used water for either biomass or seed production. The allocation of resources to seed production also varied between genotypes. These observations could have impact on the design of future lentil breeding in the context of strategies for managing changes in rainfall amount and distribution for lentil production ecosystems.
Highlights
Lens culinaris evolved and was domesticated in Southwest Asia (Ladizinsky, 1993) from where lentil cultivation subsequently spread to suitable ecosystems in all continents
Root systems vary from plant to plant in response to environment and due to genetic variation, the presence of very fine roots and/or fine roots is an important physiological component that determines most of the root length and root surface area available for water and nutrient uptake (Zobel et al, 2007; Zobel and Waisel, 2010)
The soil was placed into 10 cm diameter × 60 cm length tubes that were divided into three 20cm sub-sections corresponding to the depths of the A, B, and C horizons observed in the field
Summary
Lens culinaris evolved and was domesticated in Southwest Asia (Ladizinsky, 1993) from where lentil cultivation subsequently spread to suitable ecosystems in all continents. As the world population continues to grow and competition for agricultural resources increases, there is a need to produce high-yielding lentil genotypes that efficiently use resources even under well-watered conditions. Breeding high yielding lentil cultivars that minimize water use and have the most efficient nitrogen use will be increasingly important. Future lentil cultivars must possess both effective root system for capturing moisture, while maximizing their nitrogen fixation. Among the Lens culinaris cultivars investigated, L. culinaris Eston exhibited better nodulation and the highest nodule activity compared to others Ability to exploit this variation is part of a strategy to achieve maximum yield of lentil. Lentil varieties should possess both deep root systems and roots that can spread over large soil volumes in order to capture surface water
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