Geneticists and breeders are positioned to breed plants with root traits that improve productivity under drought. However, a better understanding of root functional traits and how traits are related to whole plant strategies to increase crop productivity under different drought conditions is needed. Root traits associated with maintaining plant productivity under drought include small fine root...

Plant roots are known to harbor large and diverse communities of bacteria. It has been suggested that plant identity can structure these root-associated communities, but few studies have specifically assessed how the composition of root microbiota varies within and between plant species growing under natural conditions. We assessed the community composition of endophytic and epiphytic bacteria ...

Plant-specific PIN-formed (PIN) efflux transporters for the plant hormone auxin are required for tissue-specific directional auxin transport and cellular auxin homeostasis. The Arabidopsis PIN protein family has been shown to play important roles in developmental processes such as embryogenesis, organogenesis, vascular tissue differentiation, root meristem patterning and tropic growth. Here we ...

Description of the root of the plant, Zizyphus mauritiana Linn. the microscopical characters of the powdered root, its behavior on treatment with different chemical reagents, and the fluorescence character under ultraviolet light after treatment were studied to fix some pharmacognostical parameters. Preliminary phytochemical screening on the various extracts of the root of the plant was also pe...

Legumes are agronomically valuable crops for food and fodder production worldwide because they are rich in protein, oil, fiber, and micronutrients. In addition, legumes require less chemical fertilizer than other major crop plants since they can assimilate some nutrients through symbiotic interactions with soil microbes. These relationships are mutually beneficial for the partners because the p...

Colonization of plant roots by Bacillus subtilis is mutually beneficial to plants and bacteria. Plants can secrete up to 30% of their fixed carbon via root exudates, thereby feeding the bacteria, and in return the associated B. subtilis bacteria provide the plant with many growth-promoting traits. Formation of a biofilm on the root by matrix-producing B. subtilis is a well-established requireme...

Root system architecture is essential for plant nutrient and water uptake and is therefore crucial for plant development. Root system responses to heterogeneous soil conditions are of highest interest in plant nutrition, plant hydrology as well as plant breeding. An entire quantification of these root responses i.e. phenotypical expressions calls for (a) elaborate experimental work (b) appropri...

Phytohormones are important plant growth regulators that control many developmental processes, such as cell division, cell differentiation, organogenesis and morphogenesis. They regulate a multitude of apparently unrelated physiological processes, often with overlapping roles, and they mutually modulate their effects. These features imply important synergistic and antagonistic interactions betw...