PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Jonathan W. Reneau
AU  - Rajdeep S. Khangura
AU  - Adam Stager
AU  - Lindsay Erndwein
AU  - Teclemariam Weldekidan
AU  - Douglas D. Cook
AU  - Brian P. Dilkes
AU  - Erin E. Sparks
TI  - Maize brace roots provide stalk anchorage
AID  - 10.1101/2020.07.28.225656
DP  - 2020 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 2020.07.28.225656
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/07/29/2020.07.28.225656.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/07/29/2020.07.28.225656.full
AB  - Mechanical failure, known as lodging, negatively impacts yield and grain quality in crops. Limiting crop loss from lodging requires an understanding of the plant traits that contribute to lodging-resistance. In maize, specialized aerial brace roots are reported to reduce root lodging. However, their direct contribution to plant biomechanics has not been measured. In this manuscript, we find that brace roots establish a rigid base (i.e. stalk anchorage) to limit plant deflection in maize. The more brace root whorls that contact the soil, the greater the contribution of brace roots to anchorage. Previous studies have linked the number of brace root whorls to flowering time in maize. To determine if flowering time selection alters the brace root contribution to anchorage, a subset of the Hallauer’s Tusón tropical population was analyzed. Despite a significant change in flowering time, selection neither altered the number of brace root whorls in the soil nor the overall contribution of brace roots to anchorage. These results demonstrate that brace roots provide a rigid base in maize, but the contribution to anchorage is not linearly related to flowering time.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.