Nutritional regulation of root development

Abstract

Mineral nutrients such as nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and iron (Fe) are essential for plant growth, development, and reproduction. Adequate provision of nutrients via the root system impacts greatly on shoot biomass and plant productivity and is therefore of crucial importance for agriculture. Nutrients are taken up at the root surface in ionic form, which is mediated by specific transport proteins. Noteworthy, root tips are able to sense the local and internal concentrations of nutrients to adjust growth and developmental processes, and ultimately, to increase or decrease the exploratory capacity of the root system. Recently, important progress has been achieved in identifying the mechanisms of nutrient sensing in wild- and cultivated species, including Arabidopsis, bean, maize, rice, lupin as well as in members of the Proteaceae and Cyperaceae families, which develop highly sophisticated root clusters as adaptations to survive in soils with very low fertility. Major findings include identification of transporter proteins and transcription factors regulating nutrient sensing, miRNAs as mobile signals and peptides as repressors of lateral root development under heterogeneous nutrient supply. Understanding the roles played by N, P, and Fe in gene expression and biochemical characterization of proteins involved in root developmental responses to homogeneous or heterogeneous N and P sources has gained additional interest due to its potential for improving fertilizer acquisition efficiency in crops.

The plant beneficial rhizobacteriumAchromobactersp. 5B1 influences root development through auxin signaling and redistribution

“…Roots are very sensitive and move towards water (hydrotropism) and gravity (gravitropism), and react to touch and hard substrates (thigmotropism) such that these dynamic responses are important for plant foraging of resources (Ruiz-Herrera et al, 2015;Su et al, 2017;Dietrich, 2018). Root movements are typically slow and difficult to observe as they occur below ground.…”

Nitric Oxide-Mediated Maize Root Apex Responses to Nitrate are Regulated by Auxin and Strigolactones

“…Besides being an essential nutrient, NO 3 - acts as a signal regulating metabolism and development in plants ( López-Bucio et al, 2003 ; Vidal and Gutiérrez, 2008 ; Ho et al, 2009 ; Prinsi et al, 2009 ; Krouk et al, 2010 ; Bouguyon et al, 2012 ; Wang et al, 2012 ; Vidal et al, 2013 ; Ruiz Herrera et al, 2015 ). Considering that the root system architecture (RSA) determines the plasticity of plants to explore the soil for searching water and nutrients, investigation on the RSA and root morphology are very important.…”

Plant–plant interactions influence developmental phase transitions, grain productivity and root system architecture in Arabidopsis via auxin and PFT1/MED25 signalling

“…Considerable progress has been made in understanding the developmental and molecular mechanisms controlling root responses to low nutrient availability (López‐Bucio et al ; Ruiz‐Herrera et al ). The root architectural changes in plants grown in high density differ from the previously reported changes elicited by low phosphate or nitrate.…”