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Twisting Growth in Plant Roots

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Plant Biomechanics

Abstract

One of the fundamental problems in plant morphogenesis is the molecular and cellular basis of left-right asymmetry that often leads to various chiral structures such as the coils of tendrils and twisted leaves. The twisting mutants of the Arabidopsis roots and hypocotyl exhibit a helical pattern of epidermal cell files with a handedness that is opposite to that of the underlying cortical microtubule arrays in the epidermis. These mutants offer the unique opportunity to investigate the genetic basis of twisting in plants, particularly in the context of cortical microtubules. In this chapter, we address the importance of large-scale mechanical forces to understand the mechanism of this hierarchical helical order, with a particular emphasis on the role of tissue tension combined with the stresses generated by differential growth. Physical processes such as elasticity and geometry might be important factors to coordinate the chirality across different length scales and to organize an entire plant body.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Takashi Hashimoto for sharing the images shown in Figs. 1 and 2 and for valuable discussions. We also thank Tobias Baskin for suggesting relevant literature on twisted cell growth (Probine 1963; Sellen 1983).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics, Ritsumeikan University, Kusatsu, Shiga, 525-8577, Japan

    Hirofumi Wada & Daichi Matsumoto

Authors
  1. Hirofumi Wada
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  2. Daichi Matsumoto
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Correspondence to Hirofumi Wada .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences, McGill University, Macdonald Campus, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue, Québec, Canada

    Anja Geitmann

  2. CNRS, Université Clermont Auvergne, SIGMA Clermont, Institut Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand, France

    Joseph Gril

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Wada, H., Matsumoto, D. (2018). Twisting Growth in Plant Roots. In: Geitmann, A., Gril, J. (eds) Plant Biomechanics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-79099-2_6

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