Root system architecture: insights from Arabidopsis and cereal crops

Abstract

Roots are important to plants for a wide variety of processes, including nutrient and water uptake, anchoring and mechanical support, storage functions, and as the major interface between the plant and various biotic and abiotic factors in the soil environment. Understanding the development and architecture of roots holds potential for the exploitation and manipulation of root characteristics to both increase food plant yield and optimize agricultural land use. This theme issue highlights the importance of investigating specific aspects of root architecture in both the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana and (cereal) crops, presents novel insights into elements that are currently hardly addressed and provides new tools and technologies to study various aspects of root system architecture. This introduction gives a broad overview of the importance of the root system and provides a snapshot of the molecular control mechanisms associated with root branching and responses to the environment in A. thaliana and cereal crops.

Figure 1.

Arabidopsis and maize root system. (a,b) Macroscopic view of 14 day old Arabidopsis (a) and 10 day old maize root system (b), with the major root types indicated. (c,d) Transverse section through an Arabidopsis (c) and maize root (d). The epidermis (Ep), cortex (Co), endodermis (En) and pericycle (Pe) are indicated. Maize pictures in (b) and (d) were kindly provided by Leen Jansen. Scale bars: (a,b) 1 cm and (c,d) 100 µm.