Abstract
Soil waterlogging is an environmental stress that negatively affects crop productivity. Waterlogged soils are usually anaerobic and chemically reduced, because of slow diffusion of oxygen in water and rapid consumption of oxygen by soil microorganisms. Under these conditions, combination of large volume of aerenchyma and barrier to Radial Oxygen Loss (ROL) is two important traits.
The aim of our study was to better understand the adaptation to waterlogging condition in teosinte (Z. nicaraguensis) and Z. mays. Growth, root aerenchyma and ROL along the root were measured. When grown in stagnant deoxygenated conditions, formation of aerenchyma near the root tip and ROL barrier at the basal part of roots was observed only in Z. nicaraguensis. Our result demonstrated that Z. nicaraguensis is capable to form not only aerenchyma to near the root tip, but also ROL barrier for an efficient transport of oxygen to the root apex in stagnant condition. Furthermore, extensive histochemical analysis of apoplastic barriers in the root peripheral layers is in progress.
This work was supported by a grant from the PROBRAIN project. The authors thank Dr. Y. Mano and F. Omori for providing seeds.
