In order to study the effects of different salinity levels on turnip (Brassica rapa L.), an investigation was conducted at Yasouj University, Iran, in 2010. The effects of four salinity levels including 1.92, 9.87, 19.6 and 21.94 ds m-1 (20:1 ratio of NaCl: CaCl2 in Hoagland solution) on germination, vegetative and maturity stages of turnip (Baherghan landrace) were investigated. The results re...

A long-standing debate in plant ecology is how plant diversity – including species richness, functional, and phylogenetic diversity – determines primary productivity aboveground and belowground (Tilman et al., 1997; Cadotte et al., 2009). A leading mechanism linking diversity and productivity posits that diverse assemblages of plants are more likely to complement each other in resource acquirin...

Plants use their roots to forage for nutrients in heterogeneous soil environments, but different plant species vastly differ in the intensity of foraging they perform. This diversity suggests the existence of constraints on foraging at the species level. We therefore examined the relationships between the intensity of root foraging and plant body traits across species in order to estimate the d...

drought is one of the most important factors limiting growth and yield in many parts of the world. in order to evaluate the effects of drought stress on some morphological and physiological traits of two cultivars of bean, two red beans (derakhshan and goli) in four drought treatments including 25%, 50%, 75%, control 100% field capacity were studied in a factorial experiment based on complete r...

The ability to nondestructively image and automatically phenotype complex root systems, like those of rice (Oryza sativa), is fundamental to identifying genes underlying root system architecture (RSA). Although root systems are central to plant fitness, identifying genes responsible for RSA remains an underexplored opportunity for crop improvement. Here we describe a nondestructive imaging and ...

Root growth and architecture are major components of plant nutrient and water use efficiencies and these traits are the matter of extensive genetic analysis in several crop species. Because root growth relies on exported assimilate from the shoot, and changes in assimilate supply are known to alter root architecture, we hypothesized (i) that the genetic bases of root growth could be intertwined...

In this study, we used data from temperate grassland plant communities in Alberta, Canada to test two longstanding hypotheses in ecology: 1) that there has been correlated evolution of the leaves and roots of plants due to selection for an integrated whole-plant resource uptake strategy, and 2) that trait diversity in ecological communities is generated by adaptations to the conditions in diffe...

The ability to nondestructively image and automatically phenotype complex root systems, like those of rice (Oryza sativa), is fundamental to identifying genes underlying root system architecture (RSA). Although root systems are central to plant fitness, identifying genes responsible for RSA remains an underexplored opportunity for crop improvement. Here we describe a nondestructive imaging and ...

The microbial communities inhabiting the root interior of healthy plants, as well as the rhizosphere, which consists of soil particles firmly attached to roots, engage in symbiotic associations with their host. To investigate the structural and functional diversification among these communities, we employed a combination of 16S rRNA gene profiling and shotgun metagenome analysis of the microbio...