root-to-shootsignallingwhensoilmoistureisheterogeneous.docVIP

Root-to-shoot signalling when soil moisture is heterogeneous: increasing the proportion of root biomass in drying soil inhibits leaf growth and increases leaf ABA concentration Running Title: root distribution and non-hydraulic signalling Ana Isabel Martin-Vertedor1 and Ian C. Dodd2* 1Consejería de Economía, Comercio e Innovación de la Junta de Extremadura. Finca “La Orden” Autovía A-V, km 372 06187, Guadajira (Badajoz), Spain 2The Lancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, LA1 4YQ, UK * Corresponding Author The Lancaster Environment Centre Lancaster University LA1 4YQ United Kingdom I.Dodd@lancaster.ac.uk Abstract To determine whether root-to-shoot signalling of soil moisture heterogeneity depended on root distribution, wild-type (WT) and ABA-deficient (Az34) barley (Hordeum vulgare) plants were grown in split-pots into which different numbers of seminal roots were inserted. After establishment, all plants received the same irrigation volumes, with one pot watered (w) and the other allowed to dry the soil (d), imposing three treatments (1d:3w, 2d:2w, 3d:1w) that differed in the number of seminal roots exposed to drying soil. Root distribution did not affect leaf water relations and had no sustained effect on plant evapotranspiration. In both genotypes, leaf elongation was less and leaf ABA concentrations higher in plants with more roots in drying soil, with leaf ABA concentrations and water potentials 30% and 0.2 MPa higher respectively in WT plants. Whole pot soil drying increased xylem ABA concentrations, but maximum values obtained when leaf growth had virtually ceased (100 nM in Az34, 330 nM in WT) had minimal effects (40% leaf growth inhibition) when xylem-supplied to detached shoots. Although ABA may not regulate leaf growth in vivo, genetic variation in foliar ABA concentration in the field may indicate different root distributions between upper (drier) and lower (wetter) soil layers. Keywords Index ABA, Hordeum vulgare, l