Elucidating bilateral endodermal patterning in Arabidopsis roots

Most currently used agricultural traits are associated with aboveground tissues (seed yield, biomass, plant height, etc.). Yet, plants live in two opposite environments – air and soil. The belowground tissues of the root provide the plant with water, assimilate essential nutrients and form intricate beneficial connections with soil-dwelling microorganisms. While we have simplistic models for some traits of the root system, such as how they morphologically adapt to specific abiotic stresses, we are only beginning to understand how these functions are integrated and coordinated at a cellular level.

The project will be supervised by Tonni Grube Andersen at the Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research.