Trait-based approaches provide a useful framework to investigate plant strategies for resource acquisition, growth, and competition, as well as plant impacts on ecosystem processes. Despite significant progress capturing trait variation within and among stems and leaves, identification of trait syndromes within fine-root systems and between fine roots and other plant organs is limited. Here we ...

Numerous pathogenic or parasitic organisms attack plant roots to obtain nutrients, and the apoplast including the plant cell wall is where the plant cell meets such organisms. Root parasitic angiosperms and nematodes are two distinct types of plant root parasites but share some common features in their strategies for breaking into plant roots. Striga and Orobanche are obligate root parasitic an...

The root provides a useful system for the analysis of plant organ formation. Mutations that affect root development and physiology have heen identified in Arabidopsis thaliana. Affected processes include emhryonic root formation, cell expansion, cell differentiation and response to environmental stimuli. Analysis of these mutations is providing insight into fundamental questions of plant devel-

Legumes are an important plant functional group since they can form a tripartite symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing Rhizobium bacteria and phosphorus-acquiring arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF). However, not much is known about AMF community composition in legumes and their root nodules. In this study, we analyzed the AMF community composition in the roots of three nonlegumes and in the roots and ...

In order to understand plant functioning, plant community composition, and terrestrial biogeochemistry, it is decisive to study standing root biomass, (fine) root dynamics, and interactions belowground. While most plant taxa can be identified by visual criteria aboveground, roots show less distinctive features. Furthermore, root systems of neighboring plants are rarely spatially segregated; thu...

root rot disease of broad-bean caused by fusarium solani is a serious disease of this crop. due to high cost and difficulty of the disease control, interaction between root nodulating bacteria and fusarium. solani were evaluated to use for disease management. broad-bean root nodulating bacteria were isolated and their interaction with f. solani was investigated in culture medium in a completely...

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...

Plant-soil interactions can strongly influence root growth in plants. There is now increasing evidence that root-root interactions can also influence root growth, affecting architecture and root traits such as lateral root formation. Both when species grow alone or in interaction with others, root systems are in turn affected by as well as affect rhizosphere pH. Changes in soil pH have knock-on...

Our understanding of the biology, biochemistry, and genetic development of roots has considerably improved during the last decade (Smith and Fedoroff, 1995; Flores et al., 1999; Benfey and Scheres, 2000). In contrast, the processes mediated by roots in the rhizosphere such as the secretion of root border cells and root exudates are not yet well understood (Hawes et al., 2000). In addition to th...

Plant root systems arise de novo from a single embryonic root. Complex and highly coordinated developmental networks are required to ensure the formation of lateral organs maximizes plant fitness. The Arabidopsis root is well-suited to dissection of regulatory and developmental networks due to its highly ordered, predictable structure. A myriad of regulatory signaling networks control the devel...