ARS | Publication request: UNDERSTANDING HOW ROOTS MINE THE SOIL: GENES, SIGNALING NETWORKS AND THE WHOLE PLANT

Submitted to: American Society of Plant Biologists Annual Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: July 25, 2001
Publication Date: July 25, 2001
Citation: Kochian, L.V. 2001. Understanding how roots mine the soil: genes, signaling networks and the whole plant. American Society of Plant Biologists Annual Meeting. p. 103.

Technical Abstract: As plant biologists gain a better understanding of plant responses to mineral stresses in the soil, it is becoming clear that terrestrial plants employ sophisticated strategies to deal with the low availability of essential mineral nutrients as well as the presence of toxic levels of metals in the soil. One of the interesting challenges we are now facing is sto determine how plants sense changes in the mineral status of the soil environment, and transduce the resulting signals into physiological responses that enhance the acquisition of essential nutrients or exclude toxic metals from the root. This presentation will focus on these research issues while examining how recent advances in molecular biology and genomics are enabling plant biologists to better understand the integration and interplay of molecular mechanisms that regulate root and whole plant mineral nutrition and stress physiology. Examples will be discussed that include plant responses that facilitate the acquisition of poorly availabl essential nutrients such as phosphorus and zinc, as well as a recently characterized mechanism of aluminum (Al) tolerance that involves aluminum activation of an anion channel that mediates the release of Al-chelating organic acids into the rhizosphere.