* Corresponding author: ningty@163.com (Tangyuan Ning)

Low crop water productivity and unsustainable tillage practices impede agricultural development globally. This study, initiated in 2002, leverages long-term experimental data to analyze wheat root morphology, distribution, and metabolic pathways under various tillage practices and residue management techniques.

Our findings indicate that at the seedling stage, wheat roots under rotary and subsoiling treatments exhibit a compact angle and uneven distribution within the soil profile, contrasting with the more uniform root architecture observed in plowed plots. In the top 0-10 cm soil layer, plowing and rotary tillage significantly enhance root dry matter accumulation compared to subsoiling.

However, the 10-40 cm layer shows a reverse trend, with rotary tillage maintaining higher values, particularly in the absence of residue return. Root length density trends closely mirror those of dry matter weight, with an average root diameter in the 0-40 cm layer that surpasses other treatments. Relative measures of root length, dry weight, and surface area exhibit consistent trends with increasing soil depth.

The ATP-BC transporter regulatory network, influenced by tillage practices, significantly modulates water and nutrient uptake by wheat roots. Subsoiling impacts xyloglucan metabolism and histidine kinase activity, which in turn affects plant hormone regulation. Salicylic acid, an endogenous hormone, is influenced by the signal transduction pathway involving benzoic acid and modulated by amidase and acyl phosphatase, playing a crucial role in plant development, stress resistance, and cell differentiation.

Subsoiling directly impacts ethylene biosynthesis, methionine degradation, and cysteine biosynthesis, mediated by methionine adenosyl transferase. This leads to metabolic differences in cysteine and methionine, essential for ethylene synthesis and polyamine precursors, with cysteine also serving antioxidant functions. The biosynthesis of glycosphingolipids, linked to plasma membrane construction, is influenced by the regulatory networks of subsoiling and rotary tillage.

Variations in purine metabolism may relate to root cell division and differentiation. Furthermore, the study reveals alterations in the metabolic pathways of starch, sucrose, and galactose, reflecting the complex interplay between tillage practices and plant metabolism. While tillage treatments significantly increase root dry matter, no significant differences in the root-to-shoot ratio were observed among treatments.

Notably, subsoiling with residue return yields an average of 8.28 Mg ha-1 for wheat and 11.83 Mg ha-1 for maize, surpassing plowing and rotary tillage by 6.13% and 7.57%, and 13.23% and 6.70%, respectively. These insights are instrumental for refining wheat cultivation strategies to enhance sustainability and productivity in agriculture.