Abstract

not-yet-known not-yet-known not-yet-known unknown In the context of climate change, associated with increasingly frequent water deficit and heat waves, there is an urgent need to maintain the performance of soybean the most extensively grown legume before it declines. The objective of this study was to explore which plant traits improve soybean resilience to heat and/or water stress, with a focus on traits involved in plant architecture and nutrient uptake. For this purpose, two soybean genotypes, already shown to have contrasted root architecture were grown under controlled conditions in the high-throughput phenotyping platform 4PMI where either optimal condition, heat waves, water stress or both heat waves and water stresses were applied during the vegetative stage. Under stress conditions the two genotypes displayed contrasted architectural features traits such as root width, root angle branching or number of roots. By correlating architectural to functional traits, related to water, carbon allocation and nutrient absorption, we were able to explain the stress susceptibility level of the two genotypes. This cross analysis of plant ecophysiology and architectural traits under different stresses provides new information on the adaptation of soybean and can inform future crop design, particularly under changing climatic conditions.