Identification of most important rice root morphological markers in response to contrasting moisture regimes under vegetative stage drought

Abstract

The experiment was carried out to examine the effect of moisture stress (drought) on different root traits, rooting pattern and to identify important root morphological markers contributing to stress tolerance. Moisture stress was imposed on 21 days old seedlings of selected rice genotypes grown in PVC cylinders. Samplings were done at 10 and 20 days after imposition of stress to examine the effect of stress on root growth and development. Results revealed that rate of assimilate allocation impeded more under 20 days stress (severe) than in 10 days stress (moderate) in terms of enhanced root: shoot ratio, maximum root length to shoot length ratio and root volume. Magnitude of trait variation among genotypes was more pronounced under severe stress than under moderate stress. The root: shoot ratio, maximum root length to shoot length ratio and root volume were observed to be the most crucial morphological markers in determining drought tolerance in rice genotypes analyzed through biplot analysis. Among the thirteen genotypes tested, AC-42994, AC- 42997, AC-43020, CR-143-2-2, Ronga Bora and Bora were found to possess desirable root traits and these genotypes can be used in the breeding programme for enhancing drought tolerance in rice.