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The drier the region, the fewer seminal roots the maize varieties cultivated there had on average (black figure; the pie chart shows the proportion of varieties with up to one seminal root in yellow, with up to three seminal roots in green and with more than three seminal roots in blue).
In the two plants on the right, a gene has been switched off with the effect that fewer seminal roots and more lateral roots grow. They recovered significantly better following a period of drought that the plant with the intact gene (plant on the left).
Prof. Dr. Frank Hochholdinger (left) and Dr. Peng Yu (right) from the Chair of Crop Functional Genomics at the University of Bonn.
a–d Rhizosheath formation of wild-type (WT) and root hair blocking mutant (nrh) barley plants in acid soil (Ac) or alkaline soil (Al) under moderate soil drying (MSD)
