ArticleJournal of experimental botany2021
Reproductive resilience but not root architecture underpins yield improvement under drought in maize.
Article in Journal of experimental botany, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed.
- Water Stress and Shade Elicit Similar Convergent Responses in Maize Kernel Development and Gene Expression During Early Post-Pollination.Plants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Concurrent improvements in maize yield and drought resistance through breeding advances in the U.S.Corn Belt.Nature communications · 2025Article
- Understanding rates of genetic gain in sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] in the United States.The plant genome · 2025Article
- Breeding perspectives on tackling trait genome-to-phenome (G2P) dimensionality using ensemble-based genomic prediction.TAG. Theoretical and applied genetics. Theoretische und angewandte Genetik · 2025Review
- Mechanistic insights and future perspectives of drought stress management in staple crops.Frontiers in plant science · 2025Review
- Two decades of harnessing standing genetic variation for physiological traits to improve drought tolerance in maize.Journal of experimental botany · 2023Review
- Breeding crops for drought-affected environments and improved climate resilience.The Plant cell · 2023Review
- Can we harness digital technologies and physiology to hasten genetic gain in US maize breeding?Plant physiology · 2022Article
- Improving drought tolerance in maize: Tools and techniques.Frontiers in genetics · 2022Review
- Plant Breeding for Intercropping in Temperate Field Crop Systems: A Review.Frontiers in plant science · 2022Review
- Can We Harness "Enviromics" to Accelerate Crop Improvement by Integrating Breeding and Agronomy?Frontiers in plant science · 2021Article
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11 authors.
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Abstract
Because plants capture water and nutrients through roots, it was proposed that changes in root systems architecture (RSA) might underpin the 3-fold increase in maize (Zea mays L.) grain yield over the last century. Here we show that both RSA and yield have changed with decades of maize breeding, but not the crop water uptake. Results from X-ray phenotyping in controlled environments showed that single cross (SX) hybrids have smaller root systems than double cross (DX) hybrids for root diameters between 2465 µm and 181µm (P<0.05). Soil water extraction measured under field conditions ranged between 2.6 mm d-1 and 2.9 mm d-1 but were not significantly different between SX and DX hybrids. Yield and yield components were higher for SX than DX hybrids across densities and irrigation (P<0.001). Taken together, the results suggest that changes in RSA were not the cause of increased water uptake but an adaptation to high-density stands used in modern agriculture. This adaptation may have contributed to shift in resource allocation to the ear and indirectly improved reproductive resilience. Advances in root physiology and phenotyping can create opportunities to maintain long-term genetic gain in maize, but a shift from ideotype to crop and production system thinking will be required.
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