Triggering root system plasticity in a changing environment with bacterial bioinoculants - Focus on plant P nutrition

Caroline Baudson, Benjamin M. Delory, Patrick du Jardin, Pierre Delaplace

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

To improve the sustainability of agricultural systems, an efficient use of resources such as phosphorus (P) nutrients is necessary. To reach this goal, the development of more resilient crop varieties able to cope with heterogeneous soil conditions in space and time is a promising strategy. Plants face many stresses in their natural environment and can respond to them by adjusting their phenotype (phenotypic plasticity). Integrating plastic root system traits into breeding strategies may help reach acceptable yields in low-input systems by enhancing water and nutrient uptake, thus reducing resource inputs in conventional farming systems. Bacterial bioinoculants, also considered to be a class of biostimulants, have shown great potential to increase the nutrient use efficiency of plants through diverse strategies including the modulation of root system plasticity. However, the study of plant plasticity can be challenging, particularly regarding the root system. This paper aims to encourage the integration of bioinoculants into the study of root system plasticity in response to P deficiency. We first focus on the plasticity of root architectural traits in a P-limiting context and on how bioinoculants can modulate root system plasticity and enhance P use efficiency. Then, important methodological points of attention to consider for the study of root system plasticity are highlighted.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)49-63
Number of pages15
JournalPlant and Soil
Volume484
Issue number1-2
Early online dateDec 2022
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Mar 2023
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Funding

This research was supported by internal research funds from the University of Liège (Belgium). BMD acknowledges funding from the German Research Foundation (project 470604360). The authors are thankful to Marcus Griffiths (Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, St. Louis, Missouri, USA) and Maria C. Hernandez-Soriano (John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK) for commenting earlier versions of the manuscript. This research was supported by internal research funds from the University of Liège (Belgium). BMD acknowledges funding from the German Research Foundation (project 470604360). The authors are thankful to Marcus Griffiths (Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, St. Louis, Missouri, USA) and Maria C. Hernandez-Soriano (John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK) for commenting earlier versions of the manuscript.

FundersFunder number
John Innes Centre, Norwich, UK
Maria C. Hernandez-Soriano
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft470604360
Université de Liège

    Keywords

    • Bacterial biostimulants
    • P use efficiency
    • Phenotypic plasticity
    • Root system

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