All Outputs (20)

Genetic control of the leaf ionome in pearl millet and correlation with root and agromorphological traits (2025)
Journal Article
Nakombo-Gbassault, P., Arenas, S., Affortit, P., Faye, A., Flis, P., Sine, B., Moukouanga, D., Gantet, P., Komba, E. K., Kane, N., Bennett, M., Wells, D., Cubry, P., Bailey, E., Grondin, A., Vigouroux, Y., & Laplaze, L. (2025). Genetic control of the leaf ionome in pearl millet and correlation with root and agromorphological traits. PLoS ONE, 20(5), Article e0319140. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0319140

Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) thrives in arid and nutrient-poor environments, establishing its role as a crucial cereal crop for food security in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite its remarkable adaptability, its yields remain below genetic potential,... Read More about Genetic control of the leaf ionome in pearl millet and correlation with root and agromorphological traits.

Missing the input: the underrepresentation of plant physiology in global soil carbon research (2025)
Journal Article
Raza, S., Cooper, H. V., Girkin, N. T., Kent, M. S., Bennett, M. J., Mooney, S. J., & Colombi, T. (2025). Missing the input: the underrepresentation of plant physiology in global soil carbon research. SOIL, 11(1), 363-369. https://doi.org/10.5194/soil-11-363-2025

Plant processes regulating the quantity and quality of soil organic carbon inputs such as photosynthesis, above- and below-ground plant growth, and root exudation are integral to our understanding of soil carbon dynamics. However, based on a bibliome... Read More about Missing the input: the underrepresentation of plant physiology in global soil carbon research.

Future crop breeding needs to consider future soils (2025)
Journal Article
Raza, S., Pandey, B. K., Hawkesford, M. J., Griffiths, S., Bennett, M. J., & Mooney, S. J. (2025). Future crop breeding needs to consider future soils. Nature Plants, 11, 939-941. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41477-025-01977-z

Modern crop breeding and seed certification agencies ignore the known spatial heterogeneity of soils and develop cultivars to thrive in a ‘one-size-fits-all’ soil environment. Neglecting the evolving dynamics of soils substantially undermines the cap... Read More about Future crop breeding needs to consider future soils.

Root Growth and Development in “Real Life”: Advances and Challenges in Studying Root–Environment Interactions (2025)
Journal Article
Mehra, P., Banda, J., Ogorek, L. L. P., Fusi, R., Castrillo, G., Colombi, T., Pandey, B. K., Sturrock, C. J., Wells, D. M., & Bennett, M. J. (2025). Root Growth and Development in “Real Life”: Advances and Challenges in Studying Root–Environment Interactions. Annual Review of Plant Biology, 76, 18.1–18.26. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-arplant-083123-074506

Plant roots play myriad roles that include foraging for resources in complex soil environments. Within this highly dynamic soil environment roots must sense, interact with, and acclimate to factors such as water availability, microbiota, and heteroge... Read More about Root Growth and Development in “Real Life”: Advances and Challenges in Studying Root–Environment Interactions.

Moisture-responsive root-branching pathways identified in diverse maize breeding germplasm (2025)
Journal Article
Kieber, J., Zheng, Z., Schnable, P. S., Dinneny, J. R., Banda, J., Sturrock, C. J., Pandey, B. K., Bennett, M., Scharwies, J. D., Clarke, T., Dinneny, A., Birkeland, S., Veltman, M. A., Torres-Martínez, H. H., Viana, W. G., & Khare, R. (2025). Moisture-responsive root-branching pathways identified in diverse maize breeding germplasm. Science, 387(6734), 666-673. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.ads5999

Plants grow complex root systems to extract unevenly distributed resources from soils. Spatial differences in soil moisture are perceived by root tips, leading to the patterning of new root branches toward available water in a process called hydropat... Read More about Moisture-responsive root-branching pathways identified in diverse maize breeding germplasm.

Genetic control of the leaf ionome in pearl millet and correlation with root and agromorphological traits (2025)
Preprint / Working Paper
Nakombo-Gbassault, P., Arenas, S., Affortit, P., Faye, A., Flis, P., Sine, B., Moukouanga, D., Gantet, P., Kosh Komba, E., Kane, N., Bennett, M., Wells, D., Cubry, P., Bailey, E., Grondin, A., Vigouroux, Y., & Laplaze, L. Genetic control of the leaf ionome in pearl millet and correlation with root and agromorphological traits

Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) thrives in arid and nutrient-poor environments, establishing its role as a crucial cereal crop for food security in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite its remarkable adaptability, its yields remain below genetic potential,... Read More about Genetic control of the leaf ionome in pearl millet and correlation with root and agromorphological traits.

Root RADAR: how 'rhizocrine' signals allow roots to detect and respond to their soil environment and stresses (2024)
Journal Article
Pandey, B. K., George, T. S., Cooper, H. V., Sturrock, C. J., Bennett, T., & Bennett, M. J. (2025). Root RADAR: how 'rhizocrine' signals allow roots to detect and respond to their soil environment and stresses. Journal of Experimental Botany, 76(9), 1500-1509. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erae490

Agricultural intensification coupled with changing climate are causing soils to become increasingly vulnerable to stresses such as drought, soil erosion and compaction. The mechanisms by which roots detect and respond to soil stresses remains poorly... Read More about Root RADAR: how 'rhizocrine' signals allow roots to detect and respond to their soil environment and stresses.

Root-soil-microbiome management is key to the success of Regenerative Agriculture (2024)
Journal Article
Mooney, S., Castrillo, G., Cooper, H., & Bennett, M. (2024). Root-soil-microbiome management is key to the success of Regenerative Agriculture. Nature Food, 5, 451–453. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-024-01001-1

Building soil health and manipulating the soil microbiome, alongside targeted plant breeding that prioritizes preferential root architectural development, hold the key to the future success of regenerative agriculture. Greater integration is needed b... Read More about Root-soil-microbiome management is key to the success of Regenerative Agriculture.

The auxin efflux carrier PIN1a regulates vascular patterning in cereal roots (2024)
Journal Article
Fusi, R., Milner, S. G., Rosignoli, S., Bovina, R., De Jesus Vieira Teixeira, C., Lou, H., Atkinson, B. S., Borkar, A. N., York, L. M., Jones, D. H., Sturrock, C. J., Stein, N., Mascher, M., Tuberosa, R., O'Connor, D., Bennett, M. J., Bishopp, A., Salvi, S., & Bhosale, R. (2024). The auxin efflux carrier PIN1a regulates vascular patterning in cereal roots. New Phytologist, 244(1), 104-115. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.19777

Barley (Hordeum vulgare) is an important global cereal crop and a model in genetic studies. Despite advances in characterising barley genomic resources, few mutant studies have identified genes controlling root architecture and anatomy, which plays a... Read More about The auxin efflux carrier PIN1a regulates vascular patterning in cereal roots.

Genetic regulation of the root angle in cereals (2024)
Journal Article
Kirschner, G. K., Hochholdinger, F., Salvi, S., Bennett, M. J., Huang, G., & Bhosale, R. A. (2024). Genetic regulation of the root angle in cereals. Trends in Plant Science, 29(7), 814-822. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tplants.2024.01.008

The root angle plays a critical role in efficiently capturing nutrients and water from different soil layers. Steeper root angles enable access to mobile water and nitrogen from deeper soil layers, whereas shallow root angles facilitate the capture o... Read More about Genetic regulation of the root angle in cereals.

Root plasticity vs. elasticity – When are responses acclimative? (2024)
Journal Article
Colombi, T., Pandey, B. K., Chawade, A., Bennett, M. J., Mooney, S., & Keller, T. (2024). Root plasticity vs. elasticity – When are responses acclimative?. Trends in Plant Science, 29(8), 856-864. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tplants.2024.01.003

Spatiotemporal soil heterogeneity and the resulting edaphic stress cycles can be decisive for crop growth. However, our understanding of the acclimative value of root responses to heterogeneous soil conditions remains limited. We outline a framework... Read More about Root plasticity vs. elasticity – When are responses acclimative?.

Hydraulic flux–responsive hormone redistribution determines root branching (2022)
Journal Article
Mehra, P., Pandey, B. K., Melebari, D., Banda, J., Leftley, N., Couvreur, V., Rowe, J., Anfang, M., De Gernier, H., Morris, E., Sturrock, C. J., Mooney, S. J., Swarup, R., Faulkner, C., Beeckman, T., Bhalerao, R. P., Shani, E., Jones, A. M., Dodd, I. C., Sharp, R. E., …Bennett, M. J. (2022). Hydraulic flux–responsive hormone redistribution determines root branching. Science, 378(6621), 762-768. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.add3771

Plant roots exhibit plasticity in their branching patterns to forage efficiently for heterogeneously distributed resources, such as soil water. The xerobranching response represses lateral root formation when roots lose contact with water. Here, we s... Read More about Hydraulic flux–responsive hormone redistribution determines root branching.

Root angle is controlled by EGT1in cereal crops employing anantigravitropic mechanism (2022)
Journal Article
Fusi, R., Rosignoli, S., Lou, H., Sangiorgi, G., Bovina, R., Pattem, J. K., Borkar, A. N., Lombardi, M., Forestan, C., Milner, S. G., Davis, J. L., Lale, A., Kirschner, G. K., Swarup, R., Tassinari, A., Pandey, B. K., York, L. M., Atkinson, B. S., Sturrock, C. J., Mooney, S. J., …Salvi, S. (2022). Root angle is controlled by EGT1in cereal crops employing anantigravitropic mechanism. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,

Root angle in crops represents a key trait for efficient capture of soil resources. Root angle is determined by competing gravitropic versus anti-gravitropic offset (AGO) mechanisms. Here we report a new root angle regulatory gene termed ENHANCED GRA... Read More about Root angle is controlled by EGT1in cereal crops employing anantigravitropic mechanism.

Root angle is controlled by 𝐸𝐺𝑇1 in cereal crops employing an antigravitropic mechanism (2022)
Journal Article
Fusi, R., Rosignoli, S., Lou, H., Sangiorgi, G., Bovina, R., Pattem, J. K., Borkar, A. N., Lombardi, M., Forestan, C., Milner, S. G., Davis, J. L., Lale, A., Kirschner, G. K., Swarup, R., Tassinari, A., Pandey, B. K., York, L. M., Atkinson, B. S., Sturrock, C. J., Mooney, S. J., …Salvi, S. (2022). Root angle is controlled by 𝐸𝐺𝑇1 in cereal crops employing an antigravitropic mechanism. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(31), Article e2201350119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2201350119

Root angle in crops represents a key trait for efficient capture of soil resources. Root angle is determined by competing gravitropic versus antigravitropic offset (AGO) mechanisms. Here we report a root angle regulatory gene termed ENHANCED GRAVITRO... Read More about Root angle is controlled by 𝐸𝐺𝑇1 in cereal crops employing an antigravitropic mechanism.

Ethylene inhibits rice root elongation in compacted soil via ABA- and auxin-mediated mechanisms (2022)
Journal Article
Huang, G., Kilic, A., Karady, M., Zhang, J., Mehra, P., Song, X., Sturrock, C. J., Zhu, W., Qin, H., Hartman, S., Schneider, H. M., Bhosale, R., Dodd, I. C., Sharp, R. E., Huang, R., Mooney, S. J., Liang, W., Bennett, M. J., Zhang, D., & Pandey, B. K. (2022). Ethylene inhibits rice root elongation in compacted soil via ABA- and auxin-mediated mechanisms. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(30), Article e2201072119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2201072119

Soil compaction represents a major agronomic challenge, inhibiting root elongation and impacting crop yields. Roots use ethylene to sense soil compaction as the restricted air space causes this gaseous signal to accumulate around root tips. Ethylene... Read More about Ethylene inhibits rice root elongation in compacted soil via ABA- and auxin-mediated mechanisms.

Erratum: Author Correction: Rice auxin influx carrier OsAUX1 facilitates root hair elongation in response to low external phosphate (Nature communications (2018) 9 1 (1408)) (2018)
Journal Article
Giri, J., Bhosale, R., Huang, G., Pandey, B. K., Parker, H., Zappala, S., Yang, J., Dievart, A., Bureau, C., Ljung, K., Price, A., Rose, T., Larrieu, A., Mairhofer, S., Sturrock, C. J., White, P., Dupuy, L., Hawkesford, M., Perin, C., Liang, W., …Bennett, M. J. (2018). Erratum: Author Correction: Rice auxin influx carrier OsAUX1 facilitates root hair elongation in response to low external phosphate (Nature communications (2018) 9 1 (1408)). Nature Communications, 9(1), Article 1810. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-04280-y

The original version of this Article omitted the following from the Acknowledgements:'We also thank DBT-CREST BT/HRD/03/01/2002.'This has been corrected in both the PDF and HTML versions of the Article.

Rice auxin influx carrier OsAUX1 facilitates root hair elongation in response to low external phosphate (2018)
Journal Article
Giri, J., Bhosale, R., Huang, G., Pandey, B. K., Parker, H., Zappala, S., Yang, J., Dievart, A., Bureau, C., Ljung, K., Price, A., Rose, T., Larrieu, A., Mairhofer, S., Sturrock, C. J., White, P., Dupuy, L., Hawkesford, M., Perin, C., Liang, W., …Bennett, M. J. (2018). Rice auxin influx carrier OsAUX1 facilitates root hair elongation in response to low external phosphate. Nature Communications, 9(1), https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-03850-4

Root traits such as root angle and hair length influence resource acquisition particularly for immobile nutrients like phosphorus (P). Here, we attempted to modify root angle in rice by disrupting the OsAUX1 auxin influx transporter gene in an effort... Read More about Rice auxin influx carrier OsAUX1 facilitates root hair elongation in response to low external phosphate.

Assessing the influence of the rhizosphere on soil hydraulic properties using X-ray computed tomography and numerical modelling (2015)
Journal Article
Daly, K. R., Mooney, S. J., Bennett, M. J., Crout, N. M., Roose, T., & Tracy, S. R. (2015). Assessing the influence of the rhizosphere on soil hydraulic properties using X-ray computed tomography and numerical modelling. Journal of Experimental Botany, 66(8), 2305-2314. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/eru509

© 2015 © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Experimental Biology. Understanding the dynamics of water distribution in soil is crucial for enhancing our knowledge of managing soil and water resources. Th... Read More about Assessing the influence of the rhizosphere on soil hydraulic properties using X-ray computed tomography and numerical modelling.

Branching out in roots: uncovering form, function, and regulation (2014)
Journal Article
Atkinson, J. A., Rasmussen, A., Traini, R., Voss, U., Sturrock, C., Mooney, S. J., Wells, D. M., & Bennett, M. J. (2014). Branching out in roots: uncovering form, function, and regulation. Plant Physiology, 166(2), 538-550. https://doi.org/10.1104/pp.114.245423

Root branching is critical for plants to secure anchorage and ensure the supply of water, minerals, and nutrients. To date, research on root branching has focused on lateral root development in young seedlings. However, many other programs of postemb... Read More about Branching out in roots: uncovering form, function, and regulation.

Effects of X-ray dose on rhizosphere studies using X-ray computed tomography (2013)
Journal Article
Zappala, S., Helliwell, J. R., Tracy, S., Mairhofer, S., Sturrock, C., Pridmore, T., Bennett, M. J., & Mooney, S. J. (2013). Effects of X-ray dose on rhizosphere studies using X-ray computed tomography. PLoS ONE, 8(6), Article e67250. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0067250

X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) is a non-destructive imaging technique originally designed for diagnostic medicine, which was adopted for rhizosphere and soil science applications in the early 1980s. X-ray CT enables researchers to simultaneously visu... Read More about Effects of X-ray dose on rhizosphere studies using X-ray computed tomography.