Evaluation of SRL and different Root Contributing Traits of Rice (Oryza sativa L.) under Water Stress

Author: Selukash Parida, Goutam Kumar Dash, Kailash Chandra Samal, Subhashree Das and Padmini Swain*

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Abstract

A pot experiment was conducted to evaluate the root growth and distribution of four earlier screened rice genotypes i.e. Parijata, IC 516008, Lalat and Prasad. Water stress (WS) was imposed 15 days before flowering by withdrawing irrigation and allowed to grow with controlled irrigation. Our results showed that specific root length (SRL) was positively associated with the total root length (TRL), root surface area (RSA), root volume, specific root area (SRA), and root length density (RLD) however; SRL was negatively associated with root average diameter (RAD). Under WS, Parijata and IC 516008 possessed greater survival ability by enhancing SRL and were considered tolerant genotypes compared to Lalat (moderately tolerant) and Prasad (susceptible genotypes). With higher SRL, the tolerant genotypes are associated with improving water potential and photosynthetic rate. SRL can be considered a crucial root trait for the genetic improvement of genotypes to improve yield under WS.

Keywords

Genetic improvement, root diameter, root volume, SRL, RAD.