Change of water use efficiency and its relation with root system growth in wheat evolution

Raising crop water use efficiency (WUE) is the physiological basis to implement crop high efficiently using water. The present soil column and field experiments are designed to investigate the change of wheat WUE (Triticum aestivum L.) at whole plant level and root system growth in evolution and the relationship between WUE and its root system growth using 10 wheat evolution genotypes with different ploidy chromosomes sets. Results show that in wheat evolution from 2n→6n, WUE at whole plant level increases with the increase of ploidy chromosomes, and root system growth (root weight, root length) and root/shoot ratio of wheat decrease with the increase of ploidy chromosomes under dry and irrigated conditions. WUE is negatively correlated with root weight and root/shoot ratio of wheat in evolution, significantly. Root system growth has an adverse redundancy for WUE in wheat evolution, and the root redundancy reduces with the increase of ploidy chromosomes, which result in the increase of wheat WUE at whole plant level.