Journal Article

Control of root system architecture by DEEPER ROOTING 1 increases rice yield under drought conditions

Okuno, Kazutoshi, Ogawa, Satoshi, Hara, Naho, Kitomi, Yuka, Matsumoto, Takashi, Rane, Jagadish, Ono, Kazuko, Wu, Jianzhong, Inoue, Haruhiko, Nagamura, Yoshiaki, Kanno, Noriko, Ishitani, Manabu, Yano, Masahiro, Inukai, Yoshiaki, Takai, Toshiyuki, Motoyama, Ritsuko, Sugimoto, Kazuhiko, Uga, Yusaku, Takehisa, Hinako

2013

Overview

Yusaku Uga and colleagues show that the gene underlying the rice quantitative trait locus DEEPER ROOTING 1 ( DRO1 ) influences root growth angle and allows plants to maintain high yield performance under drought conditions. They further show that DRO1 is involved in cell elongation in the root tip that causes asymmetric root growth and downward bending of the root in response to gravity. The genetic improvement of drought resistance is essential for stable and adequate crop production in drought-prone areas 1 . Here we demonstrate that alteration of root system architecture improves drought avoidance through the cloning and characterization of DEEPER ROOTING 1 ( DRO1 ), a rice quantitative trait locus controlling root growth angle. DRO1 is negatively regulated by auxin and is involved in cell elongation in the root tip that causes asymmetric root growth and downward bending of the root in response to gravity. Higher expression of DRO1 increases the root growth angle, whereby roots grow in a more downward direction. Introducing DRO1 into a shallow-rooting rice cultivar by backcrossing enabled the resulting line to avoid drought by increasing deep rooting, which maintained high yield performance under drought conditions relative to the recipient cultivar. Our experiments suggest that control of root system architecture will contribute to drought avoidance in crops.

• Publisher: Nature Publishing Group US,Nature Publishing Group
• Subject: 631/208/711 / 631/449/1736 / Adaptation, Biological - genetics / Agriculture / Animal Genetics and Genomics / Architecture / Biomedicine / Cancer Research / Cloning / Crop production / Crop yields / Cultivars / Drought / Drought resistance / Droughts / Experiments / Gene expression / Gene Expression Regulation, Plant - drug effects / Gene Function / Gene mapping / Gene Order / Genes, Plant / Genetic aspects / Genotype / Hardiness / Human Genetics / letter / Molecular Sequence Data / Oryza - genetics / Oryza - growth & development / Oryza sativa / Phenotype / Physiological aspects / Plant growth / Plant Growth Regulators - pharmacology / Plant Roots - cytology / Plant Roots - genetics / Plant Roots - growth & development / Plants / Plasma / Proteins / Quantitative Trait Loci / Rice / Roots