Root traits vary enormously among plant species but we have little understanding of how this variation affects their functioning. Of central interest is how root traits are related to plant resource acquisition strategies from soil. We examined root traits of 33 woody species from northeastern US forests that form two of the most common types of mutualisms with fungi, arbuscular mycorrhizas (AM...

Cucumber (Cucumis sativus) seedlings grown in a horizontal position develop a specialized protuberance (or peg) on the lower side of the transition zone between the hypocotyl and the root. This occurs by suppressing peg formation on the upper side via a decrease in auxin resulting from a gravitational response. However, the gravity-stimulated mechanism of inducing asymmetric auxin distribution ...

Root formation in plants involves the continuous interpretation of positional cues. Physiological studies have linked root formation to auxins. An auxin response element displays a maximum in the Arabidopsis root and we investigate its developmental significance. Auxin response mutants reduce the maximum or its perception, and interfere with distal root patterning. Polar auxin transport mutants...

In the unusual aquatic Podostemaceae, the root is the leading organ of the plant body and is variously compressed and submerged as it adheres to rock surfaces in rapid water. In an anatomical comparison of the root apical meristems and root caps of 33 species that represent the major lineages of the family, the dorsiventrality of root meristems varied and was classified into four patterns: (1) ...

Genes encoding ROOT HAIR DEFECTIVE SIX-LIKE (RSL) class I basic helix loop helix proteins are expressed in future root hair cells of the Arabidopsis thaliana root meristem where they positively regulate root hair cell development. Here we show that there are three RSL class I protein coding genes in the Brachypodium distachyon genome, BdRSL1, BdRSL2 and BdRSL3, and each is expressed in developi...

BACKGROUND Methods exist to quantify the distribution of growth rate over the root axis. However, non-destructive, high-throughput evaluations of total root elongation in controlled environments and the field are lacking in growth studies. A new imaging approach to analyse total root elongation is described. SCOPE High pixel resolution of the images enables the study of growth in short time i...

31 Agreement and Plural features in Heritage Arabic Speakers Studies of heritage speakers of Spanish and Russian have reported that verbal and nominal morphology are vulnerable areas for L1 loss and incomplete acquisition. In this paper, we will report on on-going experimental research on the vulnerability of nominal and verbal agreement in Heritage Arabic speakers, since Arabic presents comple...