UnRootINGStress

Rice is the staple food for half the world population and an important crop in Europe, but severely affected by drought. The root system, the first organ to respond to drought, is frequently overlooked in research due to be underground. Nevertheless, many genes have already been described to change the root system architecture (RSA) but most of them lead to growth-defense tradeoffs that hamper yield, due to expression in other organs. UnRootINGStress aims to quantify the root traits of rice plants altered in the expression of a root-specific E3-ubiquitin ligase responsive to drought. These plants exhibit an altered RSA, but not shoot traits. To fully characterize this phenotype, we plan to access a root-phenotyping Installation (Julich) that is able to collect several root (e.g. root length and root system width) and shoot parameters (e.g. apparent leaf area), under control and drought conditions. Given the large amount of data generated, a proper guidance on annotation and raw phenotypic data deposit (.csv files) will be crucial for (re)usability of data by the team or others (data.INRAE.fr). UnRootINGStress will emphasize the importance of root-specific genes (E3-ubiquitin ligases) in RSA plasticity for a sustainable rice production using less water and lower Carbon emissions.