Abstract:
The experiment was conducted for varietals screening of root related traits in ten rice genotypes collected
from ERR! (BR21. BR24, BRRI dhan42. BRRI dhan43. BRR! dhiUl48. BRR! dhan55. BR6976-! I-I.
OM I49(), BR6976-2B-15) with two water stress-tolerant genotypes Hashikalmi and Dharial used as check.
The experiment was carried out at the field of Agricultural Botany in the rain protected polyethene shed
house to avoid rain under natural conditions in root elongation perforated polyethene lubes which was
70 em in length. At the beginning, the rice seedlings were normally irrigated up to fourteen days for
ensuring normal growth. From fifteen days onwards water stress was imposed till thirty days and data
were recorded using .H)-days old seedlings. The maximum length of the root was found in BRR! dhan55 (22
em). Haxhikalmi C~2 em). Genotypes BR1I. BR24. BRR! dhan43. BR 6976-11-1 produced shortest roots
than the water stress-tolerant genotypes. BRRI dhan55. Hashikalrni and Dharial. Under water stress
conditions. the root shoot ratio was higher in tolerant genotypes and was lower in genotypes BR21. BR24.
BRRI dhun-l J, BR 6976-11-1. The decreased root shoot ratio indicated that root dry matter rather than
shoot dry matter was more affected due to water deficit conditions. Our findings suggest that deep root,
small shoot and higher root-shoot ratio are the characteristics, of water stress-tolerant genotypes.
