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JXB Advance Access originally published online on May 13, 2009
Journal of Experimental Botany 2009 60(9):2565-2573; doi:10.1093/jxb/erp107
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© 2009 The Author(s).
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/uk/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This paper is available online free of all access charges (see http://jxb.oxfordjournals.org/open_access.html for further details)

RESEARCH PAPER

The effects of dwarfing genes on seedling root growth of wheat

T. Wojciechowski1,*, M.J. Gooding2, L. Ramsay1 and P.J. Gregory1

1SCRI, Invergowrie, Dundee DD2 5DA, UK
2Department of Agriculture, The University of Reading, Earley Gate, Reading RG6 6AR, UK

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: Tobias.Wojciechowski{at}scri.ac.uk

Most modern wheat cultivars contain major dwarfing genes, but their effects on root growth are unclear. Near-isogenic lines (NILs) containing Rht-B1b, Rht-D1b, Rht-B1c, Rht8c, Rht-D1c, and Rht12 were used to characterize the effects of semi-dwarfing and dwarfing alleles on root growth of ‘Mercia’ and ‘Maris Widgeon’ wheat cultivars. Wheat seedlings were grown in gel chambers, soil-filled columns, and in the field. Roots were extracted and length and dry mass measured. No significant differences in root length were found between semi-dwarfing lines and the control lines in any experiment, nor was there a significant difference between the root lengths of the two cultivars grown in the field. Total root length of the dwarf lines (Rht-B1c, Rht-D1c, and Rht12) was significantly different from that of the control although the effect was dependent on the experimental methodology; in gel chambers root length of dwarfing lines was increased by ~40% while in both soil media it was decreased (by 24–33%). Root dry mass was 22–30% of the total dry mass in the soil-filled column and field experiments. Root length increased proportionally with grain mass, which varied between NILs, so grain mass was a covariate for the analysis of variance. Although total root length was altered by dwarf lines, root architecture (average root diameter, lateral root:total root ratio) was not affected by reduced height alleles. A direct effect of dwarfing alleles on root growth during seedling establishment, rather than a secondary partitioning effect, was suggested by the present experiments.

Key words: Rht1, Rht2, Rht3, Rht8, Rht10, Rht12, Triticum aestivum

Received 25 September 2008; Revised 6 March 2009 Accepted 9 March 2009


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