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An Optimized Rhizobox Protocol to Visualize Root Growth and Responsiveness to Localized Nutrients
Published on: October 22, 2018
The evolution of root hairs and rhizoids.
1Department of Plant Sciences, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
Annals of Botany
|June 26, 2012
Summary
A shared gene network controls rhizoid and root hair development in plants. This network likely originated in early plant gametophytes and later transferred to sporophytes, contributing to plant diversity.
Area of Science:
- Plant developmental biology
- Evolutionary botany
- Genetics
Background:
- Land plants develop tip-growing filamentous cells (rhizoids and root hairs) at the soil interface.
- Root hairs in vascular plants and rhizoids in gametophytes serve crucial roles in nutrient and water uptake.
- These structures are present in extant plant groups and were also found in extinct rhyniophytes.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the development and function of rhizoids and root hairs in extant land plants.
- To investigate the evolutionary origins and genetic control of these plant structures.
- To propose a mechanism for the increase in sporophyte morphological diversity.
Main Methods:
- Review of existing literature on plant rhizoids and root hairs.
Main Results:
- A conserved gene regulatory network governs rhizoid development in moss gametophytes and root hair development in vascular plant sporophytes.
- This gene regulatory network likely originated in the gametophytes of early land plants.
- The transference of this network to sporophytes may explain increased morphological diversity during plant evolution.
Conclusions:
- The gene regulatory network for rhizoid/root hair development is ancient and conserved.
- Evolutionary gene function transfer from gametophyte to sporophyte is a key developmental mechanism.
- This mechanism likely contributed to the diversification of land plant sporophytes in the Devonian Period.