Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 12, 2026

Imaging and Analysis for Quantifying Maize (Zea mays) Abiotic Stress Phenotypes
Published on: March 28, 2025
Root cortical aerenchyma improves the drought tolerance of maize (Zea mays L.)
Jinming Zhu1, Kathleen M Brown, Jonathan P Lynch
1Department of Horticulture, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.
Abstract:
Root cortical aerenchyma (RCA) reduces root respiration in maize by converting living cortical tissue to air volume. We hypothesized that RCA increases drought tolerance by reducing root metabolic costs, permitting greater root growth and water acquisition from drying soil. To test this hypothesis, recombinant inbred lines with high and low RCA were observed under water stress in the field and in soil mesocosms in a greenhouse. In the field, lines with high RCA had 30% more shoot biomass at flowering compared with lines with low RCA under water stress. Root length density in deep soil was significantly greater in the high RCA lines compared with the low RCA lines. Mid-day leaf relative water content in the high RCA lines was 10% greater than in the low RCA lines under water stress. The high RCA lines averaged eight times the yield of the low RCA lines under water stress. In mesocosms, high RCA lines had less seminal root respiration, deeper rooting, and greater shoot biomass compared with low RCA lines under water stress. These results support the hypothesis that RCA is beneficial for drought tolerance in maize by reducing the metabolic cost of soil exploration.
Related Concept Videos
Responses to Drought and Flooding
Adaptations that Reduce Water Loss
C4 Pathway and CAM
C4 Pathway
The C4 pathway is used by plants such as...
Regulation of Transpiration by Stomata
Responses to Salt Stress
Tonicity in Plants
