Making wheat drought-proof

A University of Queensland (UQ) PhD candidate has developed a cheap and simple technique allowing scientists to better adapt grain crops such as wheat to drought conditions, which are predicted to become more frequent and severe due to climate change.

Cecile Richard, from UQ’s Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI), said drought tolerance is “a priority for feeding the growing human population”. She explained that roots allow plants to access water deep in the soil, even when rain is scarce - therefore, the solution lies in increasing the length and number of these roots.

The method uses a system of clear plastic pots, which allows scientists to see through the pot wall and view the roots. Scientists can then attempt to combine favourable root characteristics in new wheat varieties that could improve the plant’s access to water.

“The roots are growing around the wall of the clear pot and it’s possible to measure different characteristics such as the angle and number of roots, based on images captured at 10 days after sowing,” Richard said.

“These characteristics reflect the root growth pattern displayed by wheat in the field, which is important for the plant to access water.

“We hope to use the clear-pot technique to rapidly discover the genes responsible for these important root characteristics.”

Richard said the method is “easy, cheap and rapid”, unlike previous techniques for measuring roots which had been time-consuming and expensive. It therefore has the potential to speed up selective breeding for drought-tolerant wheat strains and boost global wheat production.

The method has been published in the journal Plant Methods.

Image credit: ©iStockphoto.com/Dimitrije Tanaskovic