Search for Articles:
Title / Keyword
Author / Affiliation / Email
Journal
Article Type
 
 
Advanced Search
 
Section
Special Issue
Volume
Issue
Number
Page
 
5.4
4.5
Journals
Plants
Special Issues
Root Tropisms: New Insights Leading the Growth Direction of the...
share announcement

Root Tropisms: New Insights Leading the Growth Direction of the Hidden Half

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Development and Morphogenesis".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (1 July 2022) | Viewed by 9653

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Giovanna Aronne

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Naples Federico II, Via Università 100, 80055 Naples, Italy
Interests: plant biology; plant reproduction; root tropisms; pollen
Dr. Luigi Gennaro Izzo

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Agricultural Sciences, University of Naples Federico II, Via Università 100, 80055 Portici, Italy
Interests: plant-environment interactions; plant tropisms; altered gravity; gravitropism; phototropism; light quality; photosynthesis

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Root tropisms are essential responses of plants, orienting growth according to a wide range of stimuli of varying strengths and directions throughout the life cycle. Recently, considerable attention has been paid to plant tropisms considering that a deeper knowledge is indispensable to improve plant-based life support systems for future space programs, but also to increase the efficiency of the root apparatus in water and nutrient uptake in crops on Earth.

Depending on the nature of the stimulus, several root tropisms have been identified which include not only the most studied such as gravitropism, phototropism, thigmotropism, hydrotropism, halotropism, but also chemotropism, thermotropism, magnetotropism, electrotropism, oxytropism, and the recently discovered phonotropism.

To date, the Cholodny-Went theory of differential auxin distribution remains the principal tropistic mechanism after almost a hundred years from its formulation, but recent findings suggest that it is not generally applicable to all root tropisms. An in-depth understanding of the mechanisms and functions underlying root tropisms will help to elucidate plant-environment interactions and will provide new applications of specific stimuli to enhance plant growth in controlled environment and even more in altered gravity conditions, such as those in space where gravitropism dominance is nullified by microgravity.

This Special Issue of Plants will gather original research and review articles that deepen molecular, physiological, or anatomical processes orchestrating root tropisms (individually or in interaction) from perception of the stimulus to bending. Contributions on any root tropism from the most studied up to the newly discovered are welcome.

Prof. Dr. Giovanna Aronne
Dr. Luigi Gennaro Izzo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • root tropisms
  • directional growth
  • tropistic stimuli
  • root growth
  • root direction
  • root bending
  • Cholodny-Went
  • statoliths
  • auxin
  • altered gravity
  • microgravity
  • gravitropism
  • phototropism
  • thigmotropism
  • hydrotropism
  • halotropism
  • chemotropism
  • thermotropism
  • magnetotropism
  • electrotropism
  • oxytropism
  • phonotropism

Published Papers (3 papers)

Download All Papers
Order results
Result details
Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Editorial

Jump to: Research

4 pages, 201 KiB  
Editorial
Root Tropisms: New Insights Leading the Growth Direction of the Hidden Half
by Luigi Gennaro Izzo and Giovanna Aronne
Plants 2021, 10(2), 220; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10020220 - 23 Jan 2021
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 2948
Abstract
Tropisms are essential responses of plants, orienting growth according to a wide range of stimuli. Recently, considerable attention has been paid to root tropisms, not only to improve cultivation systems, such as those developed for plant-based life support systems for future space programs, [...] Read more.
Tropisms are essential responses of plants, orienting growth according to a wide range of stimuli. Recently, considerable attention has been paid to root tropisms, not only to improve cultivation systems, such as those developed for plant-based life support systems for future space programs, but also to increase the efficiency of root apparatus in water and nutrient uptake in crops on Earth. To date, the Cholodny–Went theory of differential auxin distribution remains the principal tropistic mechanism, but recent findings suggest that it is not generally applicable to all root tropisms, and new molecular pathways are under discussion. Therefore, an in-depth understanding of the mechanisms and functions underlying root tropisms is needed. Contributions to this special issue aimed to embrace reviews and research articles that deepen molecular, physiological, and anatomical processes orchestrating root tropisms from perception of the stimulus to bending. The new insights will help in elucidating plant–environment interactions, providing potential applications to improve plant growth on Earth and in space where microgravity diminishes or nullifies the gravitropism dominance. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Root Tropisms: New Insights Leading the Growth Direction of the Hidden Half)

Research

Jump to: Editorial

11 pages, 1314 KiB  
Article
The Effect of Phosphate on the Activity and Sensitivity of Nutritropism toward Ammonium in Rice Roots
by Kiyoshi Yamazaki and Toru Fujiwara
Plants 2022, 11(6), 733; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11060733 - 9 Mar 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2198
Abstract
Understanding how plants determine growth direction from environmental cues is important to reveal optimal strategies in plant survival. Nutritropism is the directional growth of plant roots towards nutrient sources. Our previous study showed that an NH4+ gradient stimulates nutritropism in the [...] Read more.
Understanding how plants determine growth direction from environmental cues is important to reveal optimal strategies in plant survival. Nutritropism is the directional growth of plant roots towards nutrient sources. Our previous study showed that an NH4+ gradient stimulates nutritropism in the lateral roots, but not in the main roots, of a rice cultivar. In the present study, we report nutritropism in the main roots of rice accessions among the World Rice Core Collection, including WRC 25. We investigated the effects of components in nutrient sources on nutritropism in WRC 25. Nutritropism in main roots was stimulated by NH4+ and significantly enhanced by Pi. We found that roots required more NH4+ stimulation for nutritropic responses in the presence of higher Pi, meaning that Pi desensitized root nutritropism. These results indicate that Pi acts as an activator and a desensitizer in nutritropism. Such a regulation of nutritropism would be important for plants to decide their optimum growth directions towards nutrient sources, gravity, moisture, or other stimuli. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Root Tropisms: New Insights Leading the Growth Direction of the Hidden Half)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

20 pages, 5551 KiB  
Article
Analysis of Graviresponse and Biological Effects of Vertical and Horizontal Clinorotation in Arabidopsis thaliana Root Tip
by Alicia Villacampa, Ludovico Sora, Raúl Herranz, Francisco-Javier Medina and Malgorzata Ciska
Plants 2021, 10(4), 734; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10040734 - 9 Apr 2021
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 2859
Abstract
Clinorotation was the first method designed to simulate microgravity on ground and it remains the most common and accessible simulation procedure. However, different experimental settings, namely angular velocity, sample orientation, and distance to the rotation center produce different responses in seedlings. Here, we [...] Read more.
Clinorotation was the first method designed to simulate microgravity on ground and it remains the most common and accessible simulation procedure. However, different experimental settings, namely angular velocity, sample orientation, and distance to the rotation center produce different responses in seedlings. Here, we compare A. thaliana root responses to the two most commonly used velocities, as examples of slow and fast clinorotation, and to vertical and horizontal clinorotation. We investigate their impact on the three stages of gravitropism: statolith sedimentation, asymmetrical auxin distribution, and differential elongation. We also investigate the statocyte ultrastructure by electron microscopy. Horizontal slow clinorotation induces changes in the statocyte ultrastructure related to a stress response and internalization of the PIN-FORMED 2 (PIN2) auxin transporter in the lower endodermis, probably due to enhanced mechano-stimulation. Additionally, fast clinorotation, as predicted, is only suitable within a very limited radius from the clinorotation center and triggers directional root growth according to the direction of the centrifugal force. Our study provides a full morphological picture of the stages of graviresponse in the root tip, and it is a valuable contribution to the field of microgravity simulation by clarifying the limitations of 2D-clinostats and proposing a proper use. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Root Tropisms: New Insights Leading the Growth Direction of the Hidden Half)
►▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

Show export options expand_more Show export options expand_less
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:
 
Displaying articles 1-3
Back to TopTop