Conditions for the emergence of circumnutations in plant roots.

The plant root system shows remarkably complex behaviors driven by environmental cues and internal dynamics, whose interplay remains largely unknown. A notable example is circumnutation growth movements, which are growth oscillations from side to side of the root apex. Here we describe a model capab...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Ilya Loshchilov, Emanuela Del Dottore, Barbara Mazzolai, Dario Floreano
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2021-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0252202
Description
Summary:The plant root system shows remarkably complex behaviors driven by environmental cues and internal dynamics, whose interplay remains largely unknown. A notable example is circumnutation growth movements, which are growth oscillations from side to side of the root apex. Here we describe a model capable of replicating root growth behaviors, which we used to analyze the role of circumnuntations, revealing their emergence I) under gravitropic stress, as a combination of signal propagation and sensitivity to the signal carriers; II) as a result of the interplay between gravitropic and thigmotropic responses; and III) as a behavioral strategy to detect and react to resource gradients. The latter function requires the presence of a hypothetical internal oscillator whose parameters are regulated by the perception of environmental resources.
ISSN:1932-6203