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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, 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., …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., …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.

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., …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.

Long‐term zero‐tillage enhances the protection of soil carbon in tropical agriculture (2021)
Journal Article
Cooper, H. V., Sjögersten, S., Lark, R. M., Girkin, N. T., Vane, C. H., Calonego, J. C., …Mooney, S. J. (2021). Long‐term zero‐tillage enhances the protection of soil carbon in tropical agriculture. European Journal of Soil Science, 72(6), 2477-2492. https://doi.org/10.1111/ejss.13111

Contrasting tillage strategies not only affect the stability and formation of soil aggregates but also modify the concentration and thermostability of soil organic matter associated with soil aggregates. Understanding the thermostability and carbon r... Read More about Long‐term zero‐tillage enhances the protection of soil carbon in tropical agriculture.

To till or not to till in a temperate ecosystem? Implications for climate change mitigation (2021)
Journal Article
Cooper, H. V., Sjögersten, S., Lark, R. M., & Mooney, S. J. (2021). To till or not to till in a temperate ecosystem? Implications for climate change mitigation. Environmental Research Letters, 16(5), Article 054022. https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/abe74e

The management of agricultural soils affect the composition and scale of their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. There is conflicting evidence on the effect of zero-tillage on carbon storage and GHG emissions. Here we assess the effects of zero-tillage... Read More about To till or not to till in a temperate ecosystem? Implications for climate change mitigation.

The ability of maize roots to grow through compacted soil is not dependent on the amount of roots formed (2021)
Journal Article
Vanhees, D. J., Loades, K. W., Bengough, A. G., Mooney, S. J., & Lynch, J. P. (2021). The ability of maize roots to grow through compacted soil is not dependent on the amount of roots formed. Field Crops Research, 264, Article 108013. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fcr.2020.108013

© 2020 Elsevier B.V. Mechanical impedance is a primary constraint to root growth and hence the capture of soil resources. To investigate whether rooting depth and root length under mechanical impedance caused by compaction are correlated we evaluated... Read More about The ability of maize roots to grow through compacted soil is not dependent on the amount of roots formed.

Multiseriate cortical sclerenchyma enhance root penetration in compacted soils (2021)
Journal Article
Schneider, H. M., Strock, C. F., Hanlon, M. T., Vanhees, D. J., Perkins, A. C., Ajmera, I. B., …Lynch, J. P. (2021). Multiseriate cortical sclerenchyma enhance root penetration in compacted soils. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 118(6), Article e2012087118. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2012087118

Mechanical impedance limits soil exploration and resource capture by plant roots. We examine the role of root anatomy in regulating plant adaptation to mechanical impedance and identify a root anatomical phene in maize (Zea mays) and wheat (Triticum... Read More about Multiseriate cortical sclerenchyma enhance root penetration in compacted soils.

Sugar beet root growth under different watering regimes: a minirhizotron study (2018)
Journal Article
Fitters, T. F., Mooney, S. J., & Sparkes, D. L. (2018). Sugar beet root growth under different watering regimes: a minirhizotron study. Environmental and Experimental Botany, 155, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envexpbot.2018.06.023

The yield of sugar beet is often reduced by drought stress and it has previously been shown that water uptake, especially from deeper layers of the soil profile, may be limited by inadequate total root length. Experiments were conducted to assess roo... Read More about Sugar beet root growth under different watering regimes: a minirhizotron study.

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., …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., …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.

Shaping 3D root system architecture (2017)
Journal Article
Morris, E. C., Griffiths, M., Golebiowska, A., Mairhofer, S., Burr-Hersey, J., Goh, T., …Bennett, M. J. (2017). Shaping 3D root system architecture. Current Biology, 27(17), R919-R930. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2017.06.043

Plants are sessile organisms rooted in one place. The soil resources that plants require are often distributed in a highly heterogeneous pattern. To aid foraging, plants have evolved roots whose growth and development are highly responsive to soil si... Read More about Shaping 3D root system architecture.

Root hydrotropism is controlled via a cortex-specific growth mechanism (2017)
Journal Article
Dietrich, D., Pang, L., Kobayashi, A., Fozard, J. A., Boudolf, V., Bhosale, R., …Bennett, M. J. (2017). Root hydrotropism is controlled via a cortex-specific growth mechanism. Nature Plants, 3(6), Article 17057. https://doi.org/10.1038/nplants.2017.57

Plants can acclimate by using tropisms to link the direction of growth to environmental conditions. Hydrotropism allows roots to forage for water, a process known to depend on abscisic acid (ABA) but whose molecular and cellular basis remains unclear... Read More about Root hydrotropism is controlled via a cortex-specific growth mechanism.

The holistic rhizosphere: integrating zones, processes, and semantics in the soil influenced by roots (2016)
Journal Article
York, L. M., Carminati, A., Mooney, S. J., Ritz, K., & Bennett, M. J. (2016). The holistic rhizosphere: integrating zones, processes, and semantics in the soil influenced by roots. Journal of Experimental Botany, 67(12), 3629-3643. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erw108

Despite often being conceptualized as a thin layer of soil around roots, the rhizosphere is actually a dynamic system of interacting processes. Hiltner originally defined the rhizosphere as the soil influenced by plant roots. However, soil physicists... Read More about The holistic rhizosphere: integrating zones, processes, and semantics in the soil influenced by roots.

Visual tracking for the recovery of multiple interacting plant root systems from X-ray ?CT images (2015)
Journal Article
Mairhofer, S., Johnson, J., Sturrock, C., Bennett, M. J., Mooney, S. J., & Pridmore, T. P. (2016). Visual tracking for the recovery of multiple interacting plant root systems from X-ray ?CT images. Machine Vision and Applications, 27(5), 721-734. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00138-015-0733-7

We propose a visual object tracking framework for the extraction of multiple interacting plant root systems from three-dimensional X-ray micro computed tomography images of plants grown in soil. Our method is based on a level set framework guided by... Read More about Visual tracking for the recovery of multiple interacting plant root systems from X-ray ?CT images.

Extracting multiple interacting root systems using X-ray microcomputed tomography (2015)
Journal Article
Mairhofer, S., Sturrock, C., Mooney, S. J., Pridmore, T. P., & Bennett, M. J. (2015). Extracting multiple interacting root systems using X-ray microcomputed tomography. Plant Journal, 84(5), 1034-1043. https://doi.org/10.1111/tpj.13047

© 2015 The Authors The Plant Journal published by Society for Experimental Biology and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Root system interactions and competition for resources are active areas of research that contribute to our understanding of how roots perc... Read More about Extracting multiple interacting root systems using X-ray microcomputed tomography.

Effects of damping-off caused by Rhizoctonia solani anastomosis group 2-1 on roots of wheat and oil seed rape quantified using X-ray Computed Tomography and real-time PCR (2015)
Journal Article
Sturrock, C., Woodhall, J., Brown, M., Walker, C., Mooney, S. J., & Ray, R. V. (in press). Effects of damping-off caused by Rhizoctonia solani anastomosis group 2-1 on roots of wheat and oil seed rape quantified using X-ray Computed Tomography and real-time PCR. Frontiers in Plant Science, 6, https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2015.00461

Rhizoctonia solani is a plant pathogenic fungus that causes significant establishment and yield losses to several important food crops globally. This is the first application of high resolution X-ray micro Computed Tomography (X-ray μCT) and real-tim... Read More about Effects of damping-off caused by Rhizoctonia solani anastomosis group 2-1 on roots of wheat and oil seed rape quantified using X-ray Computed Tomography and real-time PCR.

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.

On the evaluation of methods for the recovery of plant root systems from X-ray computed tomography images (2014)
Journal Article
Mairhofer, S., Sturrock, C., Wells, D. M., Bennett, M. J., Mooney, S. J., & Pridmore, T. P. (2014). On the evaluation of methods for the recovery of plant root systems from X-ray computed tomography images. Functional Plant Biology, 42(5), 460-470. https://doi.org/10.1071/FP14071

© CSIRO 2015. X-ray microcomputed tomography (μCT) allows nondestructive visualisation of plant root systems within their soil environment and thus offers an alternative to the commonly used destructive methodologies for the examination of plant root... Read More about On the evaluation of methods for the recovery of plant root systems from X-ray computed tomography images.

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., …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.