Evidence map›Paper›PMID 33204937›Full record

ArticlePlant direct2020

Maize brace roots provide stalk anchorage.

Jonathan W Reneau, Rajdeep S Khangura, Adam Stager, Lindsay Erndwein, Teclemariam Weldekidan, Douglas D Cook, Brian P Dilkes, Erin E Sparks

Open access · goldAbstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Plant direct, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
17citing papers in PubMed
7.2field-weighted citation impact, top 3% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

17 citing papers in PubMed, 51 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Review
  2. Cellular and Molecular Regulatory Signals in Root Growth and Development.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025
    Article
  3. Aerial root formation in Oaxacan maize (Frontiers in plant science · 2025
    Article
  4. Article
  5. Knockdown of microRNA390 Enhances Maize Brace Root Growth.International journal of molecular sciences · 2024
    Article
  6. Review
  7. Article
  8. Article
  9. Article
  10. Article
  11. Article
  12. Meta-QTL analysis and candidate genes identification for various abiotic stresses in maize (Molecular breeding : new strategies in plant improvement · 2022
    Article
  13. Review
  14. Article
  15. Article
  16. Article
  17. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

8 authors at 3 institutions in 1 country.

Jonathan W ReneauDepartment of Plant and Soil Sciences and the Delaware Biotechnology Institute University of Delaware Newark DE USA.
Rajdeep S KhanguraDepartment of Biochemistry Purdue University West Lafayette IN USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5085-6240
Adam StagerDepartment of Plant and Soil Sciences and the Delaware Biotechnology Institute University of Delaware Newark DE USA.
Lindsay ErndweinDepartment of Plant and Soil Sciences and the Delaware Biotechnology Institute University of Delaware Newark DE USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4778-7440
Teclemariam WeldekidanDepartment of Plant and Soil Sciences and the Delaware Biotechnology Institute University of Delaware Newark DE USA.
Douglas D CookDepartment of Mechanical Engineering Brigham Young University Provo UT USA.
Brian P DilkesDepartment of Biochemistry Purdue University West Lafayette IN USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2799-954X
Erin E SparksDepartment of Plant and Soil Sciences and the Delaware Biotechnology Institute University of Delaware Newark DE USA.ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1543-6950
Biotechnology Institute · USPurdue University West Lafayette · USBrigham Young University · US

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

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 use a non-destructive field-based mechanical test on plants before and after the removal of brace roots. This precisely determines the contribution of brace roots to establish a rigid base (i.e. stalk anchorage) that limits plant deflection in maize. These measurements demonstrate that the more brace root whorls that contact the soil, the greater their overall contribution to anchorage, but that the contributions of each whorl to anchorage were not equal. Previous studies demonstrated that the number of nodes that produce brace roots is correlated with 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 significant variation in flowering time and anchorage, 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 and that the contribution of brace roots to anchorage was not linearly related to flowering time.

Indexed as

anchoragebiomechanicsbrace rootsmaizeroot lodging

Identifiers

PMID33204937
PMCPMC7649601
OpenAlexW3099200058

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.