Abstract
Despite the importance of mucilage for soil-plant relations, little is known about the effect of soil drying on mucilage exudation. We introduce a method to collect mucilage from maize growing in wet and dry soils. Mucilage was collected from brace roots. The amount of mucilage exuded did not change with soil water content and transpiration rate. Mucilage exuded in dry soils had a higher degree of hydrophobicity, suggesting that the wetting properties of mucilage change in response to soil drying.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 821-824 |
Number of pages | 4 |
Journal | Journal of Plant Nutrition and Soil Science |
Volume | 178 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1 Dec 2015 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Brace root
- Contact angle
- Maize
- Rhizosphere
- Root mucilage
- Soil water content