Designer Roots for Future Crops

Kai P Voss-Fels; Rod J Snowdon; Lee T Hickey

doi:10.1016/j.tplants.2018.08.004

Designer Roots for Future Crops

Trends Plant Sci. 2018 Nov;23(11):957-960. doi: 10.1016/j.tplants.2018.08.004. Epub 2018 Aug 22.

Authors

Kai P Voss-Fels¹, Rod J Snowdon², Lee T Hickey³

Affiliations

¹ Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia.
² Department of Plant Breeding, IFZ Research Centre for Biosystems, Land Use and Nutrition, Justus Liebig University, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26-32, 35392 Giessen, Germany. Electronic address: Rod.Snowdon@agrar.uni-giessen.de.
³ Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD 4072, Australia. Electronic address: l.hickey@uq.edu.au.

PMID: 30145109
DOI: 10.1016/j.tplants.2018.08.004

Abstract

Despite the importance of roots, they have largely been ignored by modern crop research and breeding. We discuss important progress in crop root research and highlight how the context-dependent optimisation of below- and above-ground plant components provides opportunities to improve future crops in the face of increasing environmental fluctuations.

Keywords: Root architecture; breeding; flowering time; sustainable agriculture; yield stability.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Agriculture / methods
Crops, Agricultural / physiology*
Plant Breeding
Plant Roots / physiology*