You walk through a field of wheat, ryegrass, or clover and notice the sway of stems and leaves. What you cannot see is where most of the action happens.

You probably don’t think about plant roots all that much – they’re hidden underground after all. Yet they’re continually changing the shape of the world. This process happens in your garden, where ...

The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory has launched a novel robotic platform to rapidly analyze plant root systems as they grow, yielding AI-ready data to accelerate the development ...

Controlling gene activity is important for engineering plants for improved bioenergy crops and other applications. This research developed synthetic genes that use Boolean logic gates to achieve ...

A new technique may make it easier to selectively breed crop plants for better, deeper roots. The non-destructive process involves quickly checking a plant's leaves to see how far down its roots go ...

A biological mechanism familiar to people who fast helps plant roots grow strong. The discovery provides an answer to a long-unanswered question and a deeper understanding of the 'mouths' of plants ...

Roots typically branch out in response to moisture in the soil, foraging for water and nutrients. However, when the growing root loses contact with moist soil, it temporarily halts the formation of ...

LISLE, Ill. (Dec. 7, 2023)— The Morton Arboretum Tree Root Biologist Luke McCormack, Ph.D., has been recognized as one of the most cited and influential researchers worldwide by global information ...

Scientists identify genes affecting root length that could make it easier to breed drought-resistant wheat. Wheat is a key crop for ensuring global food security, but drought associated with climate ...