Root suberin forms an extracellular barrier that affects water relations and mineral nutrition in Arabidopsis.

ABSTRACT: Though central to our understanding of how roots perform their vital function of scavenging water and solutes from the soil, no direct genetic evidence currently exists to support the foundational model that suberin acts to form a chemical barrier limiting the extracellular, or apoplastic, transport of water and solutes in plant roots. Using the newly characterized enhanced suberin1 (esb1) mutant, we established a connection in Arabidopsis thaliana between suberin in the root and both water movement through the plant and solute accumulation in the shoot. Esb1 mutants, characterized by increased root suberin, were found to have reduced day time transpiration rates and increased water-use efficiency during their vegetative growth period. Furthermore, these changes in suberin and water transp

SUBMITTER: Baxter I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2679201 | biostudies-literature | 2009 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature