Phenotypic effect of growth media on Arabidopsis thaliana root hair growth

Over the years, many different growth media have been used to grow Arabidopsis thaliana in vitro in petri dishes. For these media the nutrient composition may vary, sugars may or may not be added, the medium may or may not be buffered and there is a choice between different gelling agents. The magnitude of possible combinations of these variables obstructs easy comparison of seedling phenotypes grown on the different media. This is especially obvious when it concerns the study of root hairs that are extremely sensitive to changes in their environment. To demonstrate this effect, we have grown Arabidopsis thaliana wild-type seeds on 18 different combinations of growth media and quantified root hair development. Comparison of root hair length and the respective root hair profiles identified the media that result in the formation of the longest root hairs. On these favored media they elongate through tip growth at a constant growth rate until they reach their final length (around 0.6 mm) at a distance of ±4 mm from the root tip.