The lateral root cap is the peripheral part of the root cap, lying around its central columella and adjacent to outer root tissues. It is a tip-associated tissue, not a lateral root, which is an entire branch growing from another root.
Its position makes a transport route possible. In the 2005 Arabidopsis thaliana study, tissue-targeted expression of AUX1 showed that gravitropism required auxin transport through the lateral root cap toward elongating plant epidermis cells. Disrupting auxin response in the receiving expanding epidermal population separately impaired the bend.[ref]
Signal detection, transport and response need not occur in the same cell. A useful diagram therefore traces a route from the gravity-sensitive cap region through the lateral root cap to the root elongation zone. An experiment removing cells from one region and an experiment blocking a specific transporter there ask different questions; their outcomes should not be collapsed into one claim that the region has only one function.
Articles by others on the same topic
There are currently no matching articles.