Root growth movements: Waving and skewing

• Root movement is due to a complex interplay of internal and environmental cues.
• Roots wave and slant/skew when grown on a slanted impenetrable media.
• This phenotype arises due to external cues such as gravity and touch.
• It is mediated by cytoskeletal dynamics and control of cellulose deposition.
• Movement is regulated by changes in hormonal signaling.

Roots anchor a plant in the soil, acquire nutrition and respond to environmental cues. Roots perform these functions using intricate movements and a variety of pathways have been implicated in mediating their growth patterns. These include endogenous genetic factors, perception of multiple environmental stimuli, signaling pathways interacting with hormonal dynamics and cellular processes of rapid cell elongation. In this review we attempt to consolidate our understanding of two specific types of root movements, waving and skewing, that arise on the surface of growth media, and how they are regulated by various genes and factors. These include crucial factors that are part of a complex nexus of processes including polar auxin transport and cytoskeletal dynamics. This knowledge can be extrapolated in the future for engineering plants with root architecture better suited for different soil and growth conditions such as abiotic stresses or even extended spaceflight. Technological innovations and interdisciplinary approaches promise to allow the tracking of root movements on a much finer scale, thus helping to expedite the discovery of more nodes in the regulation of root waving and skewing and movement in general.

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