Chinese Bulletin of Botany ›› 2016, Vol. 51 ›› Issue (1): 98-106.DOI: 10.11983/CBB15011

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Progress in Rice Root System Research

Yongshu Liang, Junjie Zhou, Wenbin Nan, Dongdong Duan, Hanma Zhang*   

  1. Chongqing Key Laboratory of Molecular Biology of Plant Environmental Adaptations, School of Life Sciences, Chongqing Normal University, Chongqing 401331, China
  • Received:2015-02-12 Accepted:2015-06-23 Online:2016-01-01 Published:2016-02-01
  • Contact: Zhang Hanma
  • About author:? These authors contributed equally to this paper

Abstract: Rice is one of the most important staple food crops in the world and occupies an important position in maintaining sustainable food supply in China. Root is an indispensable organ of rice plants and has a direct impact on many important traits aboveground, including grain yield and quality, stress tolerance and adaptation to change environmental conditions. In recent years, with the development and wide application of new research tools and map-based cloning techniques, progress has been made in understanding the root system of rice and the identification and functional characterization of genes or ones that control it. In this paper, we summarize some recent advances in root research metho- dology, understanding the association of traits of roots and aboveground organs as well as quantitative trait loci analyses or map-based cloning of genes associated with root traits. We also briefly discuss some challenges and future directions in rice root research.

Key words: Oryza sativa, root, root system research method, correlation of traits, map-based cloning