Study of rice root distribution patterns for breeding of drought tolerant varieties

Abstract

Root growth and development is one of the morphological characters which related to drought tolerant traits. This study aims to evaluate the root distribution pattern of 30 rice genotypes to support the breeding of drought tolerant varieties. The research was conducted in ICRR greenhouse in Sukamandi, Subang, Indonesia from October to December 2015. Thirty rice genotypes, consisting of cultivars, promising lines (prior to be released as new varieties), and check varieties, were arranged using randomized complete block design with three replications. Seed were planted in mini pots containing a mixture of sand and soil media with a concave sieve at the top. The filter is divided into three zones, namely upper (1), middle (2), and lower (3). The pot was placed in a plastic box filled with water to maintain the humidity. The results showed that Mekongga had the number of tillers, the number of fresh leaves, the number of roots in zone 1, and the total number of roots significantly higher than the best check variety, Salumpikit. In this study, it was found that the amount of metaxylem between genotypes was different. Salumpikit has the most metaxylem among other genotypes. Further research is expected to be carried out both in drought and optimum condition as a control to see the correlation between root architecture with drought tolerance in the field.