While we already knew that plant roots were capable of sensing many individual soil characteristics (water,nutrients and oxygen availability), we did not believe any understanding of how they integrated these signals in order to reply in an appropriate way. Researchers from CNRS and INRA believe just discovered a mechanism that allows a plant to adjust its water status and growth according to different soil flooding conditions. The results of this study, and published on 15 September 2016 in the journal Cell,describe how roots sense and respond to soil oxygen and potassium levels jointly, so as to change their water uptake capacity. Aside from their scientific importance, or these findings could make it possible to optimize crop flood tolerance.
Source: phys.org