crown architecture

BACKGROUND: Genetic improvement of root system architecture is a promising approach for improved uptake of water and mineral nutrients distributed unevenly in the soil. To identify genomic regions associated with the length of different root types in rice, we quantified root system architecture in a set of 26 chromosome segment substitution lines derived from a cross between lowland indica rice, IR64, and upland tropical japonica rice, Kinandang Patong, (IK-CSSLs), using 2D & 3D root phenotyping platforms...

Drought is a major abiotic stress factor limiting maize production, and elucidating the genetic control of root system architecture and plasticity to water-deficit stress is a crucial problem to improve drought adaptability. In this study, 13 root and shoot traits and genetic plasticity were evaluated in a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population under well-watered (WW) and water stress (WS) conditions. Significant phenotypic variation was observed for all observed traits both under WW and WS conditions. Most of the measured traits showed significant genotype-environment interaction (GEI) in both environments...

Mensuration of tree growth habits is of considerable importance for understanding forest ecosystem processes and forest biophysical responses to climate changes. However, the complexity of tree crown morphology that is typically formed after many years of growth tends to render it a non-trivial task, even for the state-of-the-art 3D forest mapping technology-light detection and ranging (LiDAR). Fortunately, botanists have deduced the large structural diversity of tree forms into only a limited number of tree architecture models, which can present a-priori knowledge about tree structure, growth, and other attributes for different species...

Improving or maintaining crop productivity under conditions of long term change of soil water availability and atmosphere demand for water is one the big challenges of this century. It requires a deep understanding of crop water acquisition properties, i.e. root system architecture and root hydraulic properties among other characteristics of the soil-plant-atmosphere continuum. A root pressure probe technique was used to measure the root hydraulic conductances of seven-week old maize and lupine plants grown in sandy soil...

The maize nodal root system plays a crucial role in the development of the aboveground plant and determines the yield via the uptake of water and nutrients in the field. However, the genetic architecture of the maize nodal root system is not well understood, and it has become the 'dark matter' of maize genetics. Here, a large teosinte-maize population was analyzed, and high-resolution mapping revealed that 62 out of 133 quantitative trait loci (QTLs), accounting for approximately half of the total genetic variation in nodal root number, were derived from QTLs for flowering time, which was further validated through a transgenic analysis and a genome-wide association study...

A regular 2D array of crown molecules, which would spontaneously self-assemble into disordered molecular clusters, is obtained by exploiting a guest-host process, based on the chemical affinity between amino and carboxylic groups on a gold surface. First a carboxylic organic template is formed, which then serves as a host for amino-functionalized crown molecules. The amino-carboxylic interaction thereby drives the formation of a monolayer of guest molecules, regularly distributed at the nanometer scale, preventing their aggregation in unordered clusters observed on a bare gold surface...

The ability of plants to take up water from the soil depends on both the root architecture and the distribution and evolution of the hydraulic conductivities among root types and along the root length. The mature maize (Zea mays L.) root system is composed of primary, seminal, and crown roots together with their respective laterals. Our understanding of root water uptake of maize is largely based on measurements of primary and seminal roots. Crown roots might have a different ability to extract water from the soil, but their hydraulic function remains unknown...

Background: One of the major barriers to the development of lignocellulosic feedstocks is the recalcitrance of plant cell walls to deconstruction and saccharification. Recalcitrance can be reduced by targeting genes involved in cell wall biosynthesis, but this can have unintended consequences that compromise the agronomic performance of the trees under field conditions. Here we report the results of a field trial of fourteen distinct transgenic Populus deltoides lines that had previously demonstrated reduced recalcitrance without yield penalties under greenhouse conditions...

Ca2+ -activated, non-selective (CAN) ion channels sense increases of the intracellular Ca2+ concentration, producing a flux of Na+ and/or K+ ions that depolarizes the cell, thus modulating cellular Ca2+ entry. CAN channels are involved in cellular responses such as neuronal bursting activity and cardiac rhythm. Here we report the electron cryo-microscopy structure of the most widespread CAN channel, human TRPM4, bound to the agonist Ca2+ and the modulator decavanadate. Four cytosolic C-terminal domains form an umbrella-like structure with a coiled-coil domain for the 'pole' and four helical 'ribs' spanning the N-terminal TRPM homology regions (MHRs), thus holding four subunits in a crown-like architecture...

The aim was to clarify whether marginal grooves on dental implants affect osseointegration, bone structure and the alignment of collagen fibers determining bone quality under loaded condition. Anodized Ti-6Al-4V alloy dental implants with and without marginal grooves were used (3.7 × 8.0 mm; test and control implants, respectively). Fourth premolars and first molars of six beagle mandibles were extracted. Two control and test implants were placed in randomly selected healed sites at 12 weeks after tooth extraction...

Many clonal plants produce vegetative recruits that remain connected to the parent plant. Such connections permit resource sharing among ramets, explaining the high survival rates of vegetative recruits during establishment under suboptimal conditions for sexual regeneration. We propose that differences in the regeneration niches of sexual and vegetative recruits reflect different physiological adjustments caused by parental supply of resources to the ramets. We conducted ecophysiological measurements in saplings and root suckers of Eucryphia cordifolia Cav...

The potential benefits of planting trees have generated significant interest with respect to sequestering carbon and restoring other forest based ecosystem services. Reliable estimates of carbon stocks are pivotal for understanding the global carbon balance and for promoting initiatives to mitigate CO2 emissions through forest management. There are numerous studies employing allometric regression models that convert inventory into aboveground biomass (AGB) and carbon (C). Yet the majority of allometric regression models do not consider the root system nor do these equations provide detail on the architecture and shape of different species...

INTRODUCTION: In this study, we compare glycosylation at the fetomaternal interface in 3 equine species: horse, donkey and zebra, all of which can interbreed to produce hybrids, to assess their glycan similarities and differences. METHODS: Sections cut from 3 specimens of horse (Equus caballus) placenta (50, 200 and 280 days gestation), one donkey (Equus asinus) placenta (65 cm crown-rump length) and 5 specimens of zebra (Equus quagga) placentae (81-239 days gestation) were stained with a panel of 24 biotinylated lectins using an avidin-peroxidase revealing system...

Background: Interest in tree form assessments using the terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) has increased in recent years. Yet many existing methods are limited to small-sized trees, principally due to noise and occlusion phenomena. In this paper, a novel voxel-based program that is dedicated to the analyses of large tree structures is presented. The method is based on the assumption that architectural trait variations (i.e. branching angle, bifurcation ratio, biomass allocation, etc.) influence the way a tree explores space...

The HIV-1 Rev response element (RRE) is a 351-base element in unspliced and partially spliced viral RNA; binding of the RRE by the viral Rev protein induces nuclear export of RRE-containing RNAs, as required for virus replication. It contains one long, imperfect double helix (domain I), one branched domain (domain II) containing a high-affinity Rev-binding site, and two or three additional domains. We previously reported that the RRE assumes an "A" shape in solution and suggested that the location of the Rev binding sites in domains I and II, opposite each other on the two legs of the A, is optimal for Rev binding and explains Rev's specificity for RRE-containing RNAs...

Deciphering the mechanisms that link biodiversity with ecosystem functions is critical to understanding the consequences of changes in biodiversity. The hypothesis that complementarity and selection effects drive relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functions is well accepted, and an approach to statistically untangle the relative importance of these effects has been widely applied. In contrast, empirical demonstrations of the biological mechanisms that underlie these relationships remain rare. Here, on the basis of a field experiment with young trees, we provide evidence that one form of complementarity in plant communities-complementarity among crowns in canopy space-is a mechanism, related to light interception and use, that links biodiversity with ecosystem productivity...

Studying dental ontogeny in mammals can provide valuable insight on the evolution of their masticatory apparatus and their related adaptations. The multiple acquisitions of a prolonged to continuous growth of teeth in herbivorous mammals in response to high abrasion represent an intensively investigated issue. However, the ontogenetic and architectural patterns associated with these repeated dental innovations remain poorly known. Here, we focused on two case studies corresponding to distant mammalian clades, the extinct Mesotheriidae (Notoungulata), which shared some striking dental features with the extant Ctenodactylidae (Rodentia)...

We developed a new method of using seedling trays to evaluate root angle distribution in rice (Oryza sativa. L), and found a wide genetic variation among cultivars. The seedling tray method can be used to evaluate in detail the growth angles of rice crown roots at the seedling stage by allocating nine scores (10° to 90°). Unlike basket methods, it can handle large plant populations over a short growth period (only 14 days). By using the method, we characterized the root angle distributions of 97 accessions into two cluster groups: A and B...

Three factors that directly affect the water inputs in cropping systems are root architecture, length of the growing season, and stomatal conductance to water vapor (). Deeper-rooted cultivars will perform better under water-limited conditions because they can access water stored deeper in the soil profile. Reduced limits transpiration rate () and thus throughout the vegetative phase conserves water that may be used during grain filling in water-limited environments. Additionally, growing early-maturing varieties in regions that rely on soil-stored water is a key water management strategy...

BACKGROUND: Tree pruning is a costly practice with important implications for crop harvest and nutrition, pest and disease control, soil protection and irrigation strategies. Investigations on tree pruning usually involve tedious on-ground measurements of the primary tree crown dimensions, which also might generate inconsistent results due to the irregular geometry of the trees. As an alternative to intensive field-work, this study shows a innovative procedure based on combining unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology and advanced object-based image analysis (OBIA) methodology for multi-temporal three-dimensional (3D) monitoring of hundreds of olive trees that were pruned with three different strategies (traditional, adapted and mechanical pruning)...