The high oxygen diffusion in different materials makes the establishment and maintenance of oxygen-free environments difficult. The techniques used to obtain oxygen-free environments are little efficient and not representative of flooded soil conditions. The purpose of this study was to develop a method for obtaining roots in a hypoxic environment to evaluate iron plaque and aerenchyma formation in rice plants. A hypoxic condition similar to that of flooded soils was created in 50 L tanks, based on the oxygen diffusion capacity through vinyl plastic in contact with flooded soil. Each tank was filled with soil (Gley soil), five vinyl bags and then flooded. Rice plants of the genotypes IRGA 423 and IRGA 424 grown in the field were collected, the roots cut at the stem, washed and 1/3 of the leaves removed. Each bag was filled with 12 plants of each genotype and nutrient solution. After seven days, the new adventitious roots were used to determine the iron plaque and aerenchyma formation in the segments 0-2, 2-4 and 4-6 cm from the root tips. The roots were exposed the solution of a flooded soil for 4 hours. The iron plaque was determined in the root segments after iron extraction with HCl 0.5 mol L-1. Porosity was determined in vacuum cycles applied with a syringe. The weight difference before and after vacuum treatment and water entrance was assumed as estimate of the magnitude of the aerenchyma of the roots. The method was tested with the production of new adventitious roots in vinyl bags under aerated and hypoxic conditions. Root porosity was higher in the hypoxic than in the aerated environment. Porosity was higher near plant base and as porosity increased, iron increased near the root surface, indicating the iron plaque as a parameter to estimate aerenchyma formation in rice roots. The tested root-growth method was efficient in eliminating O2 from the vinyl bags to study aerenchyma formation.
anaerobiosis; Oryza sativa L.; aerenchyma
