Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

All Outputs (30)

Modeling reveals synergies among root traits for phosphorus acquisition in pearl millet (2024)
Journal Article
Ndoye, M., Lucas, M., Ajmera, I., Sine, B., Faye, A., Burridge, J., Ngom, M., Gantet, P., Wells, D., Kane, N., Lynch, J., Diédhiou, A., Grondin, A., & Laplaze, L. (2024). Modeling reveals synergies among root traits for phosphorus acquisition in pearl millet. Crop Science, 3(3), Article 100059. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cropd.2024.100059

Pearl millet is a key food security grain crop in the world's drylands due to its tolerance to abiotic stresses. However, its yield remains low and is negatively impacted by climate change. Root phenes are potential targets to improve crop productivi... Read More about Modeling reveals synergies among root traits for phosphorus acquisition in pearl millet.

Glutaredoxin regulation of primary root growth is associated with early drought stress tolerance in pearl millet (2024)
Journal Article
de la Fuente, C., Grondin, A., Sine, B., Debieu, M., Belin, C., Hajjarpoor, A., …Laplaze, L. (2024). Glutaredoxin regulation of primary root growth is associated with early drought stress tolerance in pearl millet. eLife, 12, Article RP86169. https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.86169.3

Seedling root traits impact plant establishment under challenging environments. Pearl millet is one of the most heat and drought tolerant cereal crops that provides a vital food source across the sub-Saharan Sahel region. Pearl millet’s early root sy... Read More about Glutaredoxin regulation of primary root growth is associated with early drought stress tolerance in pearl millet.

Glutaredoxin regulation of primary root growth is associated with early drought stress tolerance in pearl millet (2024)
Journal Article
de la Fuente, C., Grondin, A., Sine, B., Debieu, M., Belin, C., Hajjarpoor, A., …Laplaze, L. (2024). Glutaredoxin regulation of primary root growth is associated with early drought stress tolerance in pearl millet. eLife, https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.86169

Seedling root traits impact plant establishment under challenging environments. Pearl millet is one of the most heat and drought tolerant cereal crops that provides a vital food source across the sub-Saharan Sahel region. Pearl millet’s early root sy... Read More about Glutaredoxin regulation of primary root growth is associated with early drought stress tolerance in pearl millet.

Chlorophyll fluorescence-based high-throughput phenotyping facilitates the genetic dissection of photosynthetic heat tolerance in African (Oryza glaberrima) and Asian (Oryza sativa) rice (2023)
Journal Article
Robson, J. K., Ferguson, J. N., McAusland, L., Atkinson, J. A., Tranchant-Dubreuil, C., Cubry, P., …Murchie, E. H. (2023). Chlorophyll fluorescence-based high-throughput phenotyping facilitates the genetic dissection of photosynthetic heat tolerance in African (Oryza glaberrima) and Asian (Oryza sativa) rice. Journal of Experimental Botany, 74(17), 5181-5197. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erad239

Rising temperatures and extreme heat events threaten rice production. Half of the global population relies on rice for basic nutrition, and therefore developing heat-tolerant rice is essential. During vegetative development, reduced photosynthetic ra... Read More about Chlorophyll fluorescence-based high-throughput phenotyping facilitates the genetic dissection of photosynthetic heat tolerance in African (Oryza glaberrima) and Asian (Oryza sativa) rice.

Loss of ancestral function in duckweed roots is accompanied by progressive anatomical reduction and a re-distribution of nutrient transporters (2023)
Journal Article
Ware, A., Jones, D. H., Flis, P., Chrysanthou, E., Smith, K. E., Kümpers, B. M., …Bishopp, A. (2023). Loss of ancestral function in duckweed roots is accompanied by progressive anatomical reduction and a re-distribution of nutrient transporters. Current Biology, 33(9), 1795-1802. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2023.03.025

Organ loss occurs frequently during plant and animal evolution. Sometimes, non-functional organs are retained through evolution. Vestigial organs are defined as genetically determined structures that have lost their ancestral (or salient) function. D... Read More about Loss of ancestral function in duckweed roots is accompanied by progressive anatomical reduction and a re-distribution of nutrient transporters.

Root architecture and leaf photosynthesis traits and associations with nitrogen-use efficiency in landrace-derived lines in wheat (2022)
Journal Article
Kareem, S. H., Hawkesford, M. J., DeSilva, J., Weerasinghe, M., Wells, D. M., Pound, M. P., …Foulkes, M. J. (2022). Root architecture and leaf photosynthesis traits and associations with nitrogen-use efficiency in landrace-derived lines in wheat. European Journal of Agronomy, 140, Article 126603. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eja.2022.126603

Root system architecture (RSA) is important in optimizing the use of nitrogen. High-throughput phenotyping techniques may be used to study root system architecture traits under controlled environments. A root phenotyping platform, consisting of germi... Read More about Root architecture and leaf photosynthesis traits and associations with nitrogen-use efficiency in landrace-derived lines in wheat.

Root system size and root hair length are key phenes for nitrate acquisition and biomass production across natural variation in Arabidopsis (2022)
Journal Article
De Pessemier, J., Moturu, T. R., Nacry, P., Ebert, R., De Gernier, H., Tillard, P., …Hermans, C. (2022). Root system size and root hair length are key phenes for nitrate acquisition and biomass production across natural variation in Arabidopsis. Journal of Experimental Botany, 73(11), 3569-3583

The role of root phenes in nitrogen (N) acquisition and biomass production was evaluated in 10 contrasting natural accessions of Arabidopsis thaliana L. Seedlings were grown on vertical agar plates with two different nitrate supplies. The low N treat... Read More about Root system size and root hair length are key phenes for nitrate acquisition and biomass production across natural variation in Arabidopsis.

Systems approaches reveal that ABCB and PIN proteins mediate co-dependent auxin efflux (2022)
Journal Article
Mellor, N. L., Voß, U., Ware, A., Janes, G., Barrack, D., Bishopp, A., …Band, L. R. (2022). Systems approaches reveal that ABCB and PIN proteins mediate co-dependent auxin efflux. Plant Cell, 34(6), 2309–2327. https://doi.org/10.1093/plcell/koac086

Members of the B family of membrane-bound ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporters represent key components of the auxin-efflux machinery in plants. Over the last two decades experimental studies have shown that modifying ABCB expression affects auxin... Read More about Systems approaches reveal that ABCB and PIN proteins mediate co-dependent auxin efflux.

Identification of QTL and underlying genes for root system architecture associated with nitrate nutrition in hexaploid wheat (2022)
Journal Article
GRIFFITHS, M., ATKINSON, J. A., Gardiner, L. J., SWARUP, R., POUND, M. P., WILSON, M. H., …WELLS, D. M. (2022). Identification of QTL and underlying genes for root system architecture associated with nitrate nutrition in hexaploid wheat. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 21(4), 917-932. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2095-3119%2821%2963700-0

The root system architecture (RSA) of a crop has a profound effect on the uptake of nutrients and consequently the potential yield. However, little is known about the genetic basis of RSA and resource adaptive responses in wheat (Triticum aestivum L.... Read More about Identification of QTL and underlying genes for root system architecture associated with nitrate nutrition in hexaploid wheat.

A European perspective on opportunities and demands for field-based crop phenotyping (2021)
Journal Article
Morisse, M., Wells, D. M., Millet, E. J., Lillemo, M., Fahrner, S., Cellini, F., …Janni, M. (2022). A European perspective on opportunities and demands for field-based crop phenotyping. Field Crops Research, 276, Article 108371. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fcr.2021.108371

The challenges of securing future food security will require deployment of innovative technologies to accelerate crop production. Plant phenotyping methods have advanced significantly, spanning low-cost hand-held devices to large-scale satellite imag... Read More about A European perspective on opportunities and demands for field-based crop phenotyping.

Preparation, Scanning and Analysis of Duckweed Using X-Ray Computed Microtomography (2021)
Journal Article
Jones, D. H., Atkinson, B., Ware, A., Sturrock, C. J., Bishopp, A., & Wells, D. M. (2021). Preparation, Scanning and Analysis of Duckweed Using X-Ray Computed Microtomography. Frontiers in Plant Science, 11, Article 617830. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.617830

© Copyright © 2021 Jones, Atkinson, Ware, Sturrock, Bishopp and Wells. Quantification of anatomical and compositional features underpins both fundamental and applied studies of plant structure and function. Relatively few non-invasive techniques are... Read More about Preparation, Scanning and Analysis of Duckweed Using X-Ray Computed Microtomography.

Positioning the Root Elongation Zone Is Saltatory and Receives Input from the Shoot (2020)
Journal Article
Baskin, T. I., Preston, S., Zelinsky, E., Yang, X., Elmali, M., Bellos, D., …Bennett, M. J. (2020). Positioning the Root Elongation Zone Is Saltatory and Receives Input from the Shoot. iScience, 23(7), Article 101309. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2020.101309

In the root, meristem and elongation zone lengths remain stable, despite growth and division of cells. To gain insight into zone stability, we imaged individual Arabidopsis thaliana roots through a horizontal microscope, and used image analysis to ob... Read More about Positioning the Root Elongation Zone Is Saltatory and Receives Input from the Shoot.

Auxin fluxes through plasmodesmata modify root-tip auxin distribution (2020)
Journal Article
Mellor, N. L., Voß, U., Janes, G., Bennett, M. J., Wells, D. M., & Band, L. R. (2020). Auxin fluxes through plasmodesmata modify root-tip auxin distribution. Development, 147(6), Article dev181669. https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.181669

© 2020. Published by The Company of Biologists Ltd. Auxin is a key signal regulating plant growth and development. It is well established that auxin dynamics depend on the spatial distribution of efflux and influx carriers on the cell membranes. In t... Read More about Auxin fluxes through plasmodesmata modify root-tip auxin distribution.

Active Vision and Surface Reconstruction for 3D Plant Shoot Modelling (2019)
Journal Article
Gibbs, J., French, A., Murchie, E., Wells, D., Pound, M., & Pridmore, T. (2020). Active Vision and Surface Reconstruction for 3D Plant Shoot Modelling. IEEE/ACM Transactions on Computational Biology and Bioinformatics, 17(6), 1907-1917. https://doi.org/10.1109/TCBB.2019.2896908

Plant phenotyping is the quantitative description of a plant’s physiological, biochemical and anatomical status which can be used in trait selection and helps to provide mechanisms to link underlying genetics with yield. Here, an active vision- based... Read More about Active Vision and Surface Reconstruction for 3D Plant Shoot Modelling.

Uncovering the hidden half of plants using new advances in root phenotyping (2018)
Journal Article
Atkinson, J. A., Pound, M. P., Bennett, M. J., & Wells, D. M. (2019). Uncovering the hidden half of plants using new advances in root phenotyping. Current Opinion in Biotechnology, 55, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copbio.2018.06.002

© 2018 The Authors Major increases in crop yield are required to keep pace with population growth and climate change. Improvements to the architecture of crop roots promise to deliver increases in water and nutrient use efficiency but profiling the r... Read More about Uncovering the hidden half of plants using new advances in root phenotyping.

Erratum: Author Correction: A mechanistic framework for auxin dependent Arabidopsis root hair elongation to low external phosphate (Nature communications (2018) 9 1 (1409)) (2018)
Journal Article
Bhosale, R., Giri, J., Pandey, B. K., Giehl, R. F. H., Hartmann, A., Traini, R., …Swarup, R. (2018). Erratum: Author Correction: A mechanistic framework for auxin dependent Arabidopsis root hair elongation to low external phosphate (Nature communications (2018) 9 1 (1409)). Nature Communications, 9(1), 1818. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04281-x

The original version of this Article omitted the following from the Acknowledgements: 'We also thank DBT-CREST BT/HRD/03/01/2002.'This has been corrected in both the PDF and HTML versions of the Article.

Root gravitropism: quantification, challenges, and solutions (2018)
Journal Article
Muller, L., Bennett, M. J., French, A., Wells, D. M., & Swarup, R. (2018). Root gravitropism: quantification, challenges, and solutions. Methods in Molecular Biology, 1761, 103-112. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-7747-5_8

© 2018, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC. Better understanding of root traits such as root angle and root gravitropism will be crucial for development of crops with improved resource use efficiency. This chapter describes a high-throughput, autom... Read More about Root gravitropism: quantification, challenges, and solutions.

An updated protocol for high throughput plant tissue sectioning (2017)
Journal Article
Atkinson, J. A., & Wells, D. M. (2017). An updated protocol for high throughput plant tissue sectioning. Frontiers in Plant Science, 8, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2017.01721

Quantification of the tissue and cellular structure of plant material is essential for the study of a variety of plant sciences applications. Currently, many methods for sectioning plant material are either low throughput or involve free-hand section... Read More about An updated protocol for high throughput plant tissue sectioning.

Linear discriminant analysis reveals differences in root architecture in wheat seedlings related to nitrogen uptake efficiency (2017)
Journal Article
Kenobi, K., Atkinson, J. A., Wells, D. M., Gaju, O., deSilva, J. G., Foulkes, M. J., …Bennett, M. J. (2017). Linear discriminant analysis reveals differences in root architecture in wheat seedlings related to nitrogen uptake efficiency. Journal of Experimental Botany, 68(17), 4969-4981. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erx300

© The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Experimental Biology. Root architecture impacts water and nutrient uptake efficiency. Identifying exactly which root architectural properties influence these agronom... Read More about Linear discriminant analysis reveals differences in root architecture in wheat seedlings related to nitrogen uptake efficiency.

Quiescent center initiation in the Arabidopsis lateral root primordia is dependent on the SCARECROW transcription factor (2016)
Journal Article
Goh, T., Toyokura, K., Wells, D. M., Swarup, K., Yamamoto, M., Mimura, T., …Guyomarc'h, S. (2016). Quiescent center initiation in the Arabidopsis lateral root primordia is dependent on the SCARECROW transcription factor. Development, 143(18), 3363-3371. https://doi.org/10.1242/dev.135319

Lateral root (LR) formation is an important determinant of root system architecture. In Arabidopsis, LRs originate from pericycle cells, which undergo a programme of morphogenesis to generate a new LR meristem. Despite its importance for root meriste... Read More about Quiescent center initiation in the Arabidopsis lateral root primordia is dependent on the SCARECROW transcription factor.