Phenotypic variability in bread wheat root systems at the early vegetative stage

BMC Plant Biology

Table 1 Descriptive statistics of 25 important traits (22 root traits, and four shoot traits) in 184 wheat genotypes grown in a semi-hydroponic phenotyping platform

Trait	Abbreviation	Minimum	Maximum	Mean	Median	Std. deviation	CV	Significance
Seminal root length zone1	SRLZ1	27.7	120	85.3	86.3	14.4	0.17	0.000
Seminal root length zone2	SRLZ2	6.8	37.7	24.1	24.6	5.66	0.23	0.000
Maximal root depth	MRD	44.3	158	109	111	18.8	0.17	0.000
Seminal and primary root number	SRN	5.67	48.3	11.1	10.8	3.21	0.29	0.258
Total root length	RL	670	3538	1902	1937	552	0.29	0.000
Root diameter	RD	0.26	0.48	0.31	0.30	0.02	0.07	0.052
Specific root length	SRL	60.5	172.7	122.3	121.4	17.8	0.15	0.000
Root length Intensity	RLI	8.12	31.1	17.8	17.6	4.55	0.26	0.000
Root tissue density	RTD	75.4	175	117	118	17.5	0.15	0.334
Root length s1	RL_s1	260	1245	687	694	213	0.31	0.000
Root diameter s1	RD_s1	0.26	0.40	0.30	0.29	0.02	0.07	0.939
Root length s2	RL_s2	93.9	1313	652	653	216	0.33	0.000
Root diameter s2	RD_s2	0.23	0.43	0.28	0.27	0.03	0.09	0.001
Root length s3	RL_s3	59.3	1266	563	562	227	0.40	0.000
Root diameter s3	RD_s3	0.29	0.69	0.35	0.35	0.04	0.12	0.000
Root length in sub-root layer	RL_sub	153	2455	1215	1220	409	0.34	0.000
Root diameter in sub-root layer	RD_sub	0.27	0.56	0.31	0.31	0.03	0.10	0.000
Root length ratio	RLR_s1/sub	0.30	3.81	0.65	0.63	0.32	0.49	0.000
Root mass	RM	50.7	305	159	155	53.1	0.33	0.000
Shoot mass	SM	47.5	450	230	221	81.9	0.36	0.000
Total dry mass	TDM	98.2	975	390	379	166	0.43	0.000
Root mass ratio	RMR	0.45	1.12	0.74	0.73	0.15	0.20	0.000
Shoot height	SH	8.87	42.7	21.9	22.0	5.85	0.27	0.000
Leaf number	LN	3.67	35.0	8.50	8.15	3.11	0.37	0.000
Tiller number	TN	1.00	5.33	2.40	2.37	0.84	0.35	0.000

Fourteen of 25 Traits with CVs (coefficients of variation) ≥0.25 appear in red and bold type. Probability (P) values were based on a GLM multivariate analysis of 184 genotypes (see Table 3 for units of each trait, and Table S1 for the data of additional 16 root traits)

ISSN: 1471-2229