The impacts of yield-selecting breeding programs and management decisions on maize root system architecture
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Food crop production will need to be nearly doubled by the year 2050 to accommodate global food demand due to increasing populations. Maize is a major contributor to the world's food supply as the leading cereal crop and its yield has consistently increased over the last century. This yield improvement is due to combination of genetic improvement and management practices and will need to accelerate to meet production goals. During the last century, breeding programs leveraged maize reproductive traits alongside management factors like planting density and fertilizer use to increase yield. Selection for yield under modern management practices has in turn indirectly impacted other above- and below-ground traits, many of which are poorly understood. In particular, maize root system architecture (RSA), which directly influences the amount and efficiency of water and nutrient capture, has been rarely studied despite its key role in supporting yield. In this overview, we consider the goals and results of past maize breeding programs and how future initiatives can learn from them. The effects of planting density, fertilizer use, and yield selection pressures will be explored, particularly their influence on RSA traits. Additionally, we discuss the benefits of using field-based studies and new phenotyping methods to study maize RSA. Collectively, the potential for root-based crop improvement to improve future maize hybrids and address the coming challenges that we face is examined.
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Ph. D