Mucilage facilitates root water uptake under edaphic stress: first evidence at the plant scale.

ABSTRACT:

Background and aims

Mucilage has been hypothesized to soften the gradients in matric potential at the root-soil interface, thereby facilitating root water uptake in dry soils and maintaining transpiration with a moderate decline in leaf water potential. So far, this hypothesis has been tested only through simplified experiments and numerical simulations. However, the impact of mucilage on the relationship between transpiration rate (E) and leaf water potential (ψleaf) at the plant scale remains speculative.

Methods

We utilized an automated root pressure chamber to measure the E(ψleaf) relationship in two cowpea genotypes with contrasting mucilage production. We then utilized a soil-plant hydraulic model to reproduce the experimental observations and inferred the matric poten

SUBMITTER: Abdalla M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12682842 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature