A 'nodemap' to sustainable maize roots: Linking nitrogen and water uptake improvements

Abstract

Two new articles find that nodal root phenes are key traits for high nitrogen use efficiency and discovering variation amongst inbred and hybrid lines that will enable the genetic mechanisms underpinning this phenotypic relationship to be investigated. Using nodal root excision, Guo and York (2019) show that reduced nodal root number results in greater root length throughout the vertical profile and especially at depth, demonstrating how root system architecture modifications can facilitate nitrogen and water foraging. In a complementary study, Yang et al. (2019) show that the cellular anatomy of nodal roots varies among nodes but also depending on nitrogen use efficiency and the degree of nitrogen limitation.