Underground tuning: quantitative regulation of root growth
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Updated: Apr 18, 2026

A Simple Protocol for Mapping the Plant Root System Architecture Traits
Published on: February 10, 2023
Santosh B Satbhai1, Daniela Ristova1, Wolfgang Busch2
1Gregor Mendel Institute (GMI), Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna Biocentre (VBC), Dr Bohr-Gasse 3, 1030 Vienna, Austria.
Abstract:
Plants display a high degree of phenotypic plasticity that allows them to tune their form and function to changing environments. The plant root system has evolved mechanisms to anchor the plant and to efficiently explore soils to forage for soil resources. Key to this is an enormous capacity for plasticity of multiple traits that shape the distribution of roots in the soil. Such root system architecture-related traits are determined by root growth rates, root growth direction, and root branching. In this review, we describe how the root system is constituted, and which mechanisms, pathways, and genes mainly regulate plasticity of the root system in response to environmental variation.
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