Climate change driven abiotic stresses (e.g., heat, drought, and degrading soil quality) are increasingly challenging crop production worldwide. Developing crop varieties more resilient to abiotic stresses is necessary to provide a sustainable solution to maintain food security. In recent years, it has been shown that crops with improved root systems can better capture water and nutrients and sequester more carbon in the soil, potentially making them more resilient to climate change and improving yield stability. Towards this, a range of root traits have been identified as potentially valuable selection targets for future crop improvement and breeding.
In recent years, advances in phenotyping and genomic technologies are enabling the study of these root traits in diverse crop species. Thereby greatly facilitating the understanding of the role of the root system in the rhizosphere and its relevance in conferring stress resilience. Additionally, these advances are promoting many genome-wide association, population genetics and functional genomics studies that aim to identify genes/QTLs controlling root traits and unravel their molecular mechanisms through follow up studies. In parallel, modelling studies are revealing the complexity with which these root traits interact with each other, with the soil and with the aerial parts of the plant.
This research topic aims to build on these advances to collate and summarise this growing knowledge (physiological, molecular, etc.) about various root functions and to what extent root systems influence rhizosphere traits and the benefits they confer to plant fitness under abiotic stresses.
We encourage contributions of Original research, Methods and Review articles addressing a broad range of topics related to our understanding of root traits towards developing varieties tolerant to climate resilience. This includes, but not restricted to:
(a) Studies investigating root functions and molecular mechanisms under abiotic stresses
(b) root trait phenotyping and discovery studies targeting marker/gene identification and validations
(c) Influence of roots on rhizosphere traits (exudates, microbiome, soil organic carbon, mycorrhiza, etc.)
(d) Root models for prediction of root functions in different environmental scenarios
(e) gene, genetic and breeding of root traits, etc.
We also encourage contributions about exploring root phenotypic plasticity and identification of root trait trade-off and their potential in developing sustainable agroecosystems as well as perspectives on next big questions in root biology.
Please note: Frontiers in Plant Science does not accept solely descriptive studies - studies which report responses to treatments and descriptive reports of ‘Omics studies will not be considered if they do not progress biological understanding of these responses. .
Climate change driven abiotic stresses (e.g., heat, drought, and degrading soil quality) are increasingly challenging crop production worldwide. Developing crop varieties more resilient to abiotic stresses is necessary to provide a sustainable solution to maintain food security. In recent years, it has been shown that crops with improved root systems can better capture water and nutrients and sequester more carbon in the soil, potentially making them more resilient to climate change and improving yield stability. Towards this, a range of root traits have been identified as potentially valuable selection targets for future crop improvement and breeding.
In recent years, advances in phenotyping and genomic technologies are enabling the study of these root traits in diverse crop species. Thereby greatly facilitating the understanding of the role of the root system in the rhizosphere and its relevance in conferring stress resilience. Additionally, these advances are promoting many genome-wide association, population genetics and functional genomics studies that aim to identify genes/QTLs controlling root traits and unravel their molecular mechanisms through follow up studies. In parallel, modelling studies are revealing the complexity with which these root traits interact with each other, with the soil and with the aerial parts of the plant.
This research topic aims to build on these advances to collate and summarise this growing knowledge (physiological, molecular, etc.) about various root functions and to what extent root systems influence rhizosphere traits and the benefits they confer to plant fitness under abiotic stresses.
We encourage contributions of Original research, Methods and Review articles addressing a broad range of topics related to our understanding of root traits towards developing varieties tolerant to climate resilience. This includes, but not restricted to:
(a) Studies investigating root functions and molecular mechanisms under abiotic stresses
(b) root trait phenotyping and discovery studies targeting marker/gene identification and validations
(c) Influence of roots on rhizosphere traits (exudates, microbiome, soil organic carbon, mycorrhiza, etc.)
(d) Root models for prediction of root functions in different environmental scenarios
(e) gene, genetic and breeding of root traits, etc.
We also encourage contributions about exploring root phenotypic plasticity and identification of root trait trade-off and their potential in developing sustainable agroecosystems as well as perspectives on next big questions in root biology.
Please note: Frontiers in Plant Science does not accept solely descriptive studies - studies which report responses to treatments and descriptive reports of ‘Omics studies will not be considered if they do not progress biological understanding of these responses. .
