This knowledge could be utilised to select for plants with higher seed yields
- Benoit Landrein
A team of plant scientists examined the processes through which plants are able to pass on information about the external environment from the roots to the new shoots. The results showed that increased soil nutrients leads to a response in stem cells in the shoots in less than 24 hours.
Experiments showed that this rapid response occurred both in vitro at the microscopic level and ex vitro with entire plants beginning to increase the rate of stem cell growth and flower development in response to the application of nitrogen in the form of nitrate.
The scientists say that the study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could contribute to improving crop yields by refining timing of fertiliser application and selective plant breeding.
First author of the paper, Dr Benoit Landrein said that it was already well established that the availability of nitrate can affect various aspects of plant development. While it was known that plant hormones called cytokinins were involved in this root-to-shoot communication, the exact role of cytokinins in mediating the response of the meristem (the structure that produces all of the aerial organs of plant) to mineral nutrients had not been described before.
Image: Plant meristems
Credit: Benoit Landrein
Reproduced courtesy of the University of Cambridge