Greater morphological and primary metabolic adaptations in roots contribute to phosphate-deficiency tolerance in the bread wheat cultivar Kenong199

Table 1 Growth, phosphate uptake, and phosphate utilization efficiency of the two cultivars under Pi deficiency

Traits^a	Tissues	Chinese Spring (CS)		Kenong199 (KN199)
Traits^a	Tissues	+Pi	−Pi	+Pi	−Pi
Biomass (mg DW^b/plant)	Shoot	252.7 ± 40.1a	207.4 ± 27.1b	171.2 ± 5.0b	158.9 ± 18.5b
	Root	43.8 ± 5.8bc	49.2 ± 3.6ab	36.9 ± 2.0c	53.3 ± 7.7a
	R/S	0.207 ± 0.017b	0.266 ± 0.010ab	0.236 ± 0.026ab	0.298 ± 0.078a
Length (cm)	Shoot	35.7 ± 1.9a	32.8 ± 2.0a	28.2 ± 2.7b	27.7 ± 3.8b
Length (cm)	Root	32.6 ± 1.9c	33.6 ± 3.7bc	34.9 ± 2.9b	38.9 ± 1.8a
Total P conc.^c (mg P/g DW)	Shoot	4.60 ± 0.69b	1.21 ± 0.10d	6.31 ± 0.73a	2.12 ± 0.16c
Total P conc.^c (mg P/g DW)	Root	6.46 ± 0.15b	2.52 ± 0.26c	7.99 ± 0.37a	2.81 ± 0.13c
Soluble Pi conc. (ug P/g FW^d)	Shoot	282.40 ± 33.44b	81.31 ± 0.83d	449.72 ± 18.81a	146.07 ± 18.30c
Soluble Pi conc. (ug P/g FW^d)	Root	198.39 ± 36.61b	43.68 ± 6.46c	290.73 ± 40.95a	58.10 ± 10.28c
P content (mg P/plant)	Shoot	1.78 ± 0.22a	0.38 ± 0.03c	1.26 ± 0.27b	0.45 ± 0.88c
P content (mg P/plant)	Root	0.55 ± 0.04a	0.18 ± 0.03b	0.50 ± 0.13a	0.20 ± 0.10b
PUE^e (g DW/mg P)	Shoot	0.57 ± 0.06c	2.68 ± 0.22a	0.82 ± 0.16c	2.27 ± 0.36b
PUE^e (g DW/mg P)	Root	1.81 ± 0.14b	5.52 ± 0.78a	2.09 ± 0.48b	4.92 ± 0.28a

Notes: ^a 12-day-old wheat seedlings were grown on Pi-sufficient (+Pi) solution or Pi-deficient (−Pi) solutions for 7 days. Data are means ± SD (n = 4), and different letters indicate significant differences using the least significant difference multiple range test (p < 0.05). ^b DW: dry weight; ^c conc.: concentration; ^d FW: fresh weight; ^e PUE: phosphate utilization efficiency

ISSN: 1471-2229