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Drought stress condition increases root to shoot ratio via alteration of carbohydrate partitioning and enzymatic activity in rice seedlings

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Abstract

To understand the underlying mechanism for plasticity in root to shoot ratio (R/S) in response to drought stress, two rice cultivars, Zhenshan97 (drought susceptible) and IRAT109 (drought resistant), were grown hydroponically, and R/S, carbohydrate concentration and partitioning, and activities of enzymes for sucrose conversion in seedlings exposed to drought stress condition (DS) imposed by polyethylene glycol 6000 were investigated. The R/S significantly increased under DS in comparison with that under well-watered condition. The proportion of dry matter and soluble sugar of roots markedly increased under DS. The R/S was negatively correlated with proportion of soluble sugar in stems, and positively with the proportions of soluble sugar and starch in roots. Drought stress condition significantly increased leaf sucrose-phosphate synthase (EC 2.4.1.14) activity and root acid and neutral/alkaline invertase (EC 3.2.1.26) activity. The R/S was positively correlated with leaf sucrose-phosphate synthase and root acid invertase activity, and negatively with leaf sucrose synthase activity in the cleavage direction. Our results indicate that the increase in R/S in response to DS is closely associated with the higher proportion of dry matter and soluble sugar in roots, and this occurs via an increase in leaf sucrose-phosphate synthase and root invertase activity, and thus more sucrose is available for transport from leaves to roots.

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Abbreviations

DS:

Drought stress condition

InvA:

Acid invertase

InvN:

Neutral/alkaline invertase

R/S:

Root to shoot ratio

SPS:

Sucrose-phosphate synthase

SSc:

Sucrose synthase in the cleavage direction

SSs:

Sucrose synthase in the synthesis direction

WW:

Well-watered condition

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Acknowledgments

This work was jointly supported by Key Projects in the National Science & Technology Pillar Program from the Ministry of Science and Technology (2013BAD07B10) and by Research Fund for the Doctoral Program of Higher Education from the Ministry of Education (20110146110021).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Key Laboratory of Crop Genetic Improvement, MOA Key Laboratory of Crop Ecophysiology and Farming System in the Middle Reaches of the Yangtze River, College of Plant Science and Technology, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan, 430070, China

    Wei Xu, Kehui Cui, Aihui Xu, Lixiao Nie, Jianliang Huang & Shaobing Peng

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  1. Wei Xu
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  2. Kehui Cui
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  3. Aihui Xu
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Correspondence to Kehui Cui.

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Communicated by W. Filek.

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Xu, W., Cui, K., Xu, A. et al. Drought stress condition increases root to shoot ratio via alteration of carbohydrate partitioning and enzymatic activity in rice seedlings. Acta Physiol Plant 37, 9 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-014-1760-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11738-014-1760-0

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