Root Engineering: Basic and Applied Concepts

✍ Scribed by Asunción Morte, Ajit Varma (eds.)

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
• Year: 2014
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 486
• Series: Soil Biology 40
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This volume illustrates the complex root system, including the various essential roles of roots as well as their interaction with diverse microorganisms localized in or near the root system.

Following initial chapters describing the anatomy and architecture as well as the growth and development of root systems, subsequent chapters focus on the various types of root symbiosis with bacteria and fungi in the rhizosphere. A third section covers the physiological strategies of roots, such as nitrate assimilation, aquaporins, the role of roots in plant defense responses and in response to droughts and salinity changes. The book’s final chapters discuss the prospects of applied engineering of roots, i.e., inventing new root structures or functions through genetic modification, but also with conventional breeding and manipulation of root symbionts. The budding field of root engineering is expected to promote a second green revolution.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-xi
Front Matter....Pages 1-1
Anatomy of Root from Eyes of a Microbiologist....Pages 3-22
Role of Phi Cells Under Abiotic Stress in Plants....Pages 23-37
Root System Architecture....Pages 39-56
Root Growth Model Based on Swarm Intelligence....Pages 57-73
The Development of the Maize Root System: Role of Auxin and Ethylene....Pages 75-103
Front Matter....Pages 105-105
Mycorrhizosphere: The Role of PGPR....Pages 107-143
How Root Structure Root Structure Defines the Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Symbiosis and What We Can Learn from It?....Pages 145-169
How Ectomycorrhizae Structures Boost the Root System?....Pages 171-191
Functions of Root Fungal Endophytes....Pages 193-201
Strigolactones Involvement in Root Development and Communications....Pages 203-219
Root Exudation: The Role of Secondary Metabolites, Their Localisation in Roots and Transport into the Rhizosphere....Pages 221-247
Front Matter....Pages 249-249
Root Strategies for Nitrate Assimilation....Pages 251-267
Root Aquaporins....Pages 269-296
Root Strategies for Rill and Gully Erosion Control....Pages 297-323
Root System Response to Drought and Salinity: Root Distribution and Water Transport....Pages 325-352
Cluster Roots....Pages 353-367
The Role of Roots in Plant Defense Responses to Aboveground Herbivores....Pages 369-384
Front Matter....Pages 385-385
Advances in Transformed Root Cultures for Root Biofactory and Phytoremediation Research....Pages 387-405
Root Proteomics....Pages 407-421
Adventitious Root Development in Ornamental Plants: Insights from Carnation Stem Cuttings....Pages 423-441
Front Matter....Pages 385-385
Roots of Medicinal Importance....Pages 443-467
Root and Root Endophytes from the Eyes of an Electron Microscopist....Pages 469-486
Erratum to Chapter 8: How Ectomycorrhizae Structures Boost the Root System?....Pages E1-E1
Back Matter....Pages 487-493

✦ Subjects

Agriculture; Microbiology; Plant Physiology; Soil Science & Conservation