Root phenotypes for improved nutrient capture: an underexploited opportunity for global agriculture.

By J. Lynch. New Phytologist, 2019

617 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Nutrient-efficient crops are a solution to the two grand challenges of modern agriculture: improving food security while reducing environmental impacts. The primary challenges are (1) nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) efficiency; (2) potassium (K), calcium (Ca), and magnesium (Mg) efficiency for acid soils; and (3) iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) efficiency for alkaline soils. Root phenotypes are promising breeding targets for each of these. The Topsoil Foraging ideotype is beneficial for P capture and should also be useful for capture of K, Ca, and Mg in acid soils. The Steep, Cheap, and Deep ideotype for subsoil foraging is beneficial for N and water capture. Fe and Zn capture can be improved by targeting mechanisms of metal mobilization in the rhizosphere. Root hairs and phenes that reduce the metabolic cost of soil exploration should be prioritized in breeding programs. Nutrient-efficient crops should provide benefits at all input levels. Although our current understanding is sufficient to deploy root phenotypes for improved nutrient capture in crop breeding, this complex topic does not receive the resources it merits in either applied or basic plant biology. Renewed emphasis on these topics is needed in order to develop the nutrient-efficient crops urgently needed in global agriculture.

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Citations in the corpus

Root anatomy and soil resource capture (2021, background): “Among contrasting maize phenotypes under drought stress, reduced CCFN was associated with reduced root respiration, greater rooting depth, better water capture from deep soil, better shoot water status, leaf photosynthesis, growth, and yield (Lynch et al. 2014).”
Nitrogen placement at sowing affects root growth, grain yield formation, N use efficiency in maize (2020, background): “With the rapid expansion of human population, the problems of insufficient soil fertility and excessive application of fertilizers to satisfy the demand for food becomes more and more problematic (Chen et al. 2014; Lynch 2019).”
Rhizosphere Spatiotemporal Organization–A Key to Rhizosphere Functions (2018, background): “To date, comprehensive and comparative analyses of nutrient availability on holistic rhizosphere responses are in their infancy or lacking completely, even though these intrinsic root features determine the yield or stress tolerance of plants (Eshel and Beeckman, 2013; Li et al., 2016; Lynch, 2019).”