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Root phenotypic plasticity has been proposed as a target for the development of more productive crops in variable environments. However, the plasticity of root anatomical and architectural responses to environmental cues is highly complex, and the consequences of these responses for plant fitness are poorly understood. We propose that root phenotypic plasticity may be beneficial in natural or low-input systems in which the availability of soil resources is spatiotemporally dynamic. Crop ancestors and landraces were selected with multiple stresses, competition, significant root loss and heterogenous resource distribution which favored plasticity in response to resource availability. However, in high-input agroecosystems, the value of phenotypic plasticity is unclear, since human management has removed many of these constraints to root function. Further research is needed to understand the fitness landscape of plastic responses including understanding the value of plasticity in different environments, environmental signals that induce plastic responses, and the genetic architecture of plasticity before it is widely adopted in breeding programs. Phenotypic plasticity has many potential ecological, and physiological benefits, but its costs and adaptive value in high-input agricultural systems is poorly understood and merits further research.

Drought stress during reproductive development could drastically reduce wheat grain number and yield, but quantitative evaluation of such an effect is unknown under climate change. The objectives of this study were to evaluate potential yield benefits of drought tolerance during reproductive development for wheat ideotypes under climate change in Europe, and to identify potential cultivar parameters for improvement. We used the Sirius wheat model to optimize drought-tolerant (DT) and drought-sensitive (DS) wheat ideotypes under a future 2050 climate scenario at 13 contrasting sites, representing major wheat growing regions in Europe. Averaged over the sites, DT ideotypes achieved 13.4% greater yield compared with DS, with higher yield stability. However, the performances of the ideotypes were site dependent. Mean yield of DT was 28–37% greater compared with DS in southern Europe. In contrast, no yield difference (≤1%) between ideotypes was found in north-western Europe. An intermediate yield benefit of 10–23% was found due to drought tolerance in central and eastern Europe. We conclude that tolerance to drought stress during reproductive development is important for high yield potentials and greater yield stability of wheat under climate change in Europe.

BackgroundA hypothetical ideotype is presented to optimize water and N acquisition by maize root systems. The overall premise is that soil resource acquisition is optimized by the coincidence of root foraging and resource availability in time and space. Since water and nitrate enter deeper soil strata over time and are initially depleted in surface soil strata, root systems with rapid exploitation of deep soil would optimize water and N capture in most maize production environments.• The ideotype Specific phenes that may contribute to rooting depth in maize include (a) a large diameter primary root with few but long laterals and tolerance of cold soil temperatures, (b) many seminal roots with shallow growth angles, small diameter, many laterals, and long root hairs, or as an alternative, an intermediate number of seminal roots with steep growth angles, large diameter, and few laterals coupled with abundant lateral branching of the initial crown roots, (c) an intermediate number of crown roots with steep growth angles, and few but long laterals, (d) one whorl of brace roots of high occupancy, having a growth angle that is slightly shallower than the growth angle for crown roots, with few but long laterals, (e) low cortical respiratory burden created by abundant cortical aerenchyma, large cortical cell size, an optimal number of cells per cortical file, and accelerated cortical senescence, (f) unresponsiveness of lateral branching to localized resource availability, and (g) low Km and high Vmax for nitrate uptake. Some elements of this ideotype have experimental support, others are hypothetical. Despite differences in N distribution between low-input and commercial maize production, this ideotype is applicable to low-input systems because of the importance of deep rooting for water acquisition. Many features of this ideotype are relevant to other cereal root systems and more generally to root systems of dicotyledonous crops.

Background CRISPR/Cas-derived base editor enables precise editing of target sites and has been widely used for basic research and crop genetic improvement. However, the editing efficiency of base editors at different targets varies greatly. Results Here, we develop a set of highly efficient base editors in cotton plants. GhABE8e, which is fused to conventional nCas9, exhibits 99.9% editing efficiency, compared to GhABE7.10 with 64.9%, and no off-target editing is detected. We further replace nCas9 with dCpf1, which recognizes TTTV PAM sequences, to broaden the range of the target site. To explore the functional divergence of TERMINAL FLOWER 1 (TFL1), we edit the non-coding and coding regions of GhTFL1 with 26 targets to generate a comprehensive allelic population including 300 independent lines in cotton. This allows hidden pleiotropic roles for GhTFL1 to be revealed and allows us to rapidly achieve directed domestication of cotton and create ideotype germplasm with moderate height, shortened fruiting branches, compact plant, and early-flowering. Further, by exploring the molecular mechanism of the GhTFL1 L86P and GhTFL1 K53G+S78G mutations, we find that the GhTFL1 L86P mutation weakens the binding strength of the GhTFL1 to other proteins but does not lead to a complete loss of GhTFL1 function. Conclusions This strategy provides an important technical platform and genetic information for the study and creation of ideal plant architecture.

Drought is one of the biggest concerns in agriculture due to the projected reduction of global freshwater supply with a concurrent increase in global food demand. Roots can significantly contribute to improving drought adaptation and productivity. Plants increase water uptake by adjusting root architecture and cooperating with symbiotic soil microbes. Thus, emphasis has been given to root architectural responses and root–microbe relationships in drought-resilient crop development. However, root responses to drought adaptation are continuous and complex processes and involve additional root traits and interactions among themselves. This review comprehensively compiles and discusses several of these root traits such as structural, physiological, molecular, hydraulic, anatomical, and plasticity, which are important to consider together, with architectural changes, when developing drought resilient crop varieties. In addition, it describes the significance of root contribution in improving soil structure and water holding capacity and its implication on long-term resilience to drought. In addition, various drought adaptive root ideotypes of monocot and dicot crops are compared and proposed for given agroclimatic conditions. Overall, this review provides a broader perspective of understanding root structural, physiological, and molecular regulators, and describes the considerations for simultaneously integrating multiple traits for drought tolerance and crop improvement, under specific growing environments.

The shade avoidance syndrome (SAS) in soybean can have destructive effects on yield, as essential carbon resources reserved for yield are diverted to the petiole and stem for exaggerated elongation, resulting in lodging and susceptibility to disease. Despite numerous attempts to reduce the unfavorable impacts of SAS for the development of cultivars suitable for high-density planting or intercropping, the genetic bases and fundamental mechanisms of SAS remain largely unclear. The extensive research conducted in the model plant Arabidopsis provides a framework for understanding the SAS in soybean. Nevertheless, recent investigations suggest that the knowledge obtained from model Arabidopsis may not be applicable to all processes in soybean. Consequently, further efforts are required to identify the genetic regulators of SAS in soybean for molecular breeding of high-yield cultivars suitable for density farming. In this review, we present an overview of the recent developments in SAS studies in soybean and suggest an ideal planting architecture for shade-tolerant soybean intended for high-yield breeding.

The changing climate scenarios harshen the biotic stresses including boosting up the population of insect/pest and disease, uplifting weed growth, declining soil beneficial microbes, threaten pollinator, and boosting up abiotic stresses including harsh drought/waterlogging, extremisms in temperature, salinity/alkalinity, abrupt rainfall pattern)) and ulitamtely  affect the plant in multiple ways. This nexus review paper will cover four significant points viz (1) the possible impacts of climate change; as the world already facing the problem of food security, in such crucial period, climatic change severely affects all four dimensions of food security (from production to consumption) and will lead to malnutrition/malnourishment faced by low-income peoples. (2) How some major crops (wheat, cotton, rice, maize, and sugarcane) are affected by stress and their consequent loss. (3) How to develop a strategic work to limit crucial factors, like their significant role in climate-smart breeding, developing resilience to stresses, and idiotypic breeding. Additionally, there is an essence of improving food security, as much of our food is wasted before consumption for instance post-harvest losses. (4) Role of biotechnology and genetic engineering in adaptive introgression of the gene or developing plant transgenic against pests. As millions of dollars are invested in innovation and research to cope with future climate change stresses on a plant, hence community base adaptation of innovation is also considered an important factor in crop improvements. Because of such crucial predictions about the future impacts of climate change on agriculture, we must adopt measures to evolve crop.

• Leaf angle and leaf area index together influence canopy light interception and canopy photosynthesis. However, so far, there is no effective method to identify the optimal combination of these two parameters for canopy photosynthesis. • In this study, first a robust high-throughput method for accurate segmentation of maize organs based on 3D point clouds data was developed, then the segmented plant organs were used to generate new 3D point clouds for the canopy of altered architectures. With this, we simulated the synergistic effect of leaf area and leaf angle on canopy photosynthesis. • The results show that, compared to the traditional parameters describing the canopy photosynthesis including leaf area index, facet angle and canopy coverage, a new parameter – the canopy occupation volume (COV) – can better explain the variations of canopy photosynthetic capacity. Specifically, COV can explain > 79% variations of canopy photosynthesis generated by changing leaf angle and > 84% variations of canopy photosynthesis generated by changing leaf area. • As COV can be calculated in a high-throughput manner based on the canopy point clouds, it can be used to evaluate canopy architecture in breeding and agronomic research.

Purpose Selection for root traits has become a target in (pre-)breeding programs aiming at improving crop ability to capture soil resources. However, the benefit of selected traits in heterogeneous target environments will depend on spatial and temporal interactions between root systems, the soil environment (fertility and water supply) and management (fertiliser placement). Methods We assessed growth and phosphorus acquisition of durum wheat ( Triticum durum L.) lines defined by contrasting seminal root angles (41° ‘Narrow’ vs 82° ‘Wide’), in response to different soil phosphorus placements and seasonal water dynamics. Responses were evaluated in clear pots (seedlings), rhizoboxes (late-tillering stage) and a custom lysimeter system (flowering stage). Results The Narrow genotype increased deep soil exploration (down to 50 cm) during early growth, with a tendency to more rapidly acquire phosphorus placed as a deep fertiliser band (25 cm depth). However, genotypic differences in shoot biomass or phosphorus uptake were not apparent at anthesis, in part due to phosphorus-induced changes in phenological development. Contrastingly, the wide genotype increased root growth in the topsoil (0–10 cm) when phosphorus was stratified in this layer and produced greater biomass at anthesis under these conditions. Shoot and root biomass and phosphorus uptake decreased when the topsoil dried out, with the greatest effect observed for phosphorus stratified in this layer. Conclusion The benefits of the selected root angle trait strongly depend on nutrient and water distributions and dynamics in the target environment. Ideotype breeding efforts and farmer selection of genotypes should consider the context in which genotypes will be deployed. Highlight The interaction between root system architecture and heterogeneous distributions of phosphorus and available water determine the relative performance of durum wheat genotypes with contrasting root angles.

The emergence of functional phenomics signifies the rebirth of physiology as a 21st century science through the use of advanced sensing technologies and big data analytics. Functional phenomics seeks to fill the significant knowledge gaps that still exist in the relationship of plant phenotype to function. Here, a general approach for the theory and practice of functional phenomics is outlined. The functional phenomics pipeline is proposed as a general method for conceptualizing, measuring, and validating utility of plant phenes, or elemental units of phenotype. The functional phenomics pipeline begins with ideotype development. Second, a phenotyping platform is developed to maximize the throughput of phene measurements. Target phenes and indicators of plant function, or performance, are measured in a mapping population. Forward genetics allows genetic mapping, while functional phenomics links phenes to plant performance. Based on these data, genotypes with contrasting phenotypes can be selected for smaller yet more intensive experiments to understand phene–environment interactions in depth. Simulation modeling is used to further understand the phenotypes, and all stages of the pipeline feed back to ideotype and phenotyping platform development. In total, functional phenomics represents an evolution of pre-existing disciplines, but the goals and unique methodologies constitute a novel research program.