Boosting crop resilience to waterlogging through hormone-regulated root traits

作者：Onusha Sharmita, AB Siddique, Ke Liu, Sergey Shabala, Matthew Tom Harrison, Meixue Zhou, Chenchen Zhao · 发表于：European Journal of Agronomy · 年份：2025 · DOI：10.1016/j.eja.2025.127948 · 被引用次数：4 · 研究领域：Plant responses to water stress、Coastal wetland ecosystem dynamics、Cassava research and cyanide

Soil waterlogging can result from excessive rainfall, poor soil drainage, high groundwater tables and inadequate drainage, leading to hypoxic or anoxic environments in crop rhizophores. Oxygen-deprived conditions negatively impact root growth and, in severe cases, lead to root senescence due to detrimental soil physiochemical properties, such as lack of nutrient availability and accumulation of toxic elements (elemental toxicity). As the primary plant tissue affected by waterlogging, plant roots have evolved several adaptive strategies to restore oxygen supply, optimize nutrient acquisition, and mitigate elemental toxicity. Previous research has been primarily focussed on ‘oxygen-to-roots’ traits, such as development of adventitious and lateral roots, formation of aerenchyma (air-filled cavities) and the radial oxygen loss barriers. However, underlying phytohormones regulatory networks in response to waterlogging have often been overlooked. This review synthesizes contemporary research on hormonal regulation of root adaptations under waterlogging, aiming to fill key knowledge gaps by linking hormone signalling to root-based waterlogging and soil toxicity tolerance. We highlight roles of ethylene, ABA, and auxin in regulating aerenchyma formation and development of barrier to reduce radial oxygen loss and show that auxin and cytokinin are vital for lateral and adventitious root development and regulating cellular anatomical adaptations. We propose that ethylene, gibberellins (...