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Role of Root Hydraulics in Plant Drought Tolerance

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Abstract

Frequent and intense drought episodes impact agricultural productivity by challenging plant water status. The maintenance of hydraulic conductivity plays a key role in deciphering stress-induced impacts. Understanding drought-induced changes to root anatomical traits is important to improve plant drought adaptation. However, little is known about the root hydraulic strategy and xylem transport phenomena at the cellular and structural levels. Moreover, root architectural adaptations that systematically govern hydraulic safety as a function of water availability are largely unknown. A comprehensive understanding of root hydraulics and root architecture is needed to identify strategies to improve water uptake and modulate crucial root traits for crop improvement, especially in drought-prone areas. This review highlights the function of roots and the root–shoot junction as a hydraulic safety valve to quickly transport water in the radial and axial direction at cellular and tissue levels under drought stress.

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Fig. 1

Modified from Mencuccini et al. (2019)

Fig. 2

Modified from Maurel and Nacry (2020)

Fig. 3

Modified from Zhou et al. (2020)

Fig. 4

Conceived from Burridge et al. (2022), Li et al. (2022), Rafie et al. (2022)

Fig. 5

Coceived from Zhang et al. (2020), Bloch et al. (2019), Ding et al. 2016, 2018), Ding et al. (2015), Cao et al. (2017), Bijanzadeh et al. (2018), Thorne et al. (2020), Song et al. (2019), Wagner et al. (2020), Anokye et al. (2021), Gao et al. (2017 (Color figure online))

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Not applicable.

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Acknowledgements

Financial support received from Sultan Qaboos University through His Majesty Trust Fund (SR/AGR/CROP/19/01) is acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Plant Production and Genetics, Faculty of Agriculture, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran

    Soheyla Mohammadi Alagoz

  2. Department of Botany, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, 38040, Pakistan

    Noreen Zahra

  3. Department of Botany, Goverment College Women University, Faisalabad, 38040, Pakistan

    Noreen Zahra

  4. Department of Agriculture Engineering, Payam-E Noor University, PO Box 19395-3697, Tehran, Iran

    Monireh Hajiaghaei Kamrani

  5. Department of Soil Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran

    Behnam Asgari Lajayer

  6. 12/9 Browns Avenue, Ringwood, Melbourne, VIC, 3134, Australia

    Khatereh Nobaharan

  7. Faculty of Agriculture, Dalhousie University, Truro, NS, B2N 5E3, Canada

    Tess Astatkie

  8. The UWA Institute of Agriculture, The University of Western Australia, Perth, WA, 6001, Australia

    Kadambot H. M. Siddique & Muhammad Farooq

  9. Department of Plant Sciences, College of Agricultural and Marine Sciences, Sultan Qaboos University, Al-Khoud 123, Muscat, Oman

    Muhammad Farooq

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  1. Soheyla Mohammadi Alagoz
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Contributions

MF conceived the idea and developed the outline. MA and NZ prepared the first draft. SMA, NZ, MHK, BAL, KN, TA, KHM and MF finalized the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Muhammad Farooq.

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Mohammadi Alagoz, S., Zahra, N., Hajiaghaei Kamrani, M. et al. Role of Root Hydraulics in Plant Drought Tolerance. J Plant Growth Regul 42, 6228–6243 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00344-022-10807-x

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