Discovery of the Root Cap Cuticle: Structure and Functions
(2021) LS2 Life Sciences Switzerland Annual meeting — Location: Geneva (18.February.2021)
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- et. al.
- Abstract
- During land colonization, plants developed extracellular diffusion barriers, such as cuticle to isolate themselves from the environment. The cuticle is a lipid layer, made of cutin, deposited at the surface of the plant shoot. It prevents the loss of water and nutrients and protect plants against stresses. Plant cuticles have been studied since the 19th century and only characterized in the shoot epidermal cells. A cuticle at the root was not imagined to be compatible with its uptake function. Hence, the specific localization of the cuticle at the epidermis of the aerial organ became a defined feature of the cuticle. However, the intriguing expression of genes involved in cutin biosynthesis at the tip of primary and lateral roots of Arabidopsis has led to the investigation of the cell wall ultrastructure at the root cap cells, the outer cell layer of the root tip. The root cap cells of young primary roots and lateral roots of Arabidopsis, as well as of other species, are covered by an layer highly similar to the Arabidopsis leaf cuticle. The structure, the composition and the biosynthesis pathway of the root cap cuticle was investigated. The root cap cuticle of young primary and emerging lateral roots plays important roles in root physiology and development such as diffusion barrier protecting the root meristem from toxic compounds and the reduction of organ adhesion causing a delay in lateral root emergence. Until now, plant cuticles of different aerial organs have been exclusively associated with epidermal tissues of the shoot, our discovery of a cuticle at the root cap now challenges this dogma and adds a new element to our understanding of root anatomy, development, and physiology.
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Berhin, A., & et al. (2021). Discovery of the Root Cap Cuticle: Structure and Functions. LS2 Life Sciences Switzerland Annual meeting, Geneva. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/246980