ArticleJournal of experimental botany2016
3D deformation field in growing plant roots reveals both mechanical and biological responses to axial mechanical forces.
Article in Journal of experimental botany, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 35 citations in OpenAlex.
- Engineering principles in plant metabolism: integrating control, mechanics, and transport under dynamic environments.Plant physiology · 2026Review
- Uncovering plant root traits and mechanisms that enable penetration, exploration, and exploitation of soil parent materials: a systematic review.Plant and soil · 2025Review
- Force generation by a cylindrical cell under stationary osmolyte synthesis.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2024Article
- On the mechanical origins of waving, coiling and skewing inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2024Article
- Survival on land: A dark-grown seedling searching for path.Frontiers in plant science · 2023Article
- Plant root growth against a mechanical obstacle: the early growth response of a maize root facing an axial resistance is consistent with the Lockhart model.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2022Article
- Compression of a pressurized spherical shell by a spherical or flat probe.The European physical journal. E, Soft matter · 2022Article
- A starting guide to root ecology: strengthening ecological concepts and standardising root classification, sampling, processing and trait measurements.The New phytologist · 2021Review
- Between Stress and Response: Function and Localization of Mechanosensitive CaInternational journal of molecular sciences · 2021Review
- Root growth responses to mechanical impedance are regulated by a network of ROS, ethylene and auxin signalling in Arabidopsis.The New phytologist · 2021Article
- Reorganisation of rhizosphere soil pore structure by wild plant species in compacted soils.Journal of experimental botany · 2020Article
- Morphological responses of plant roots to mechanical stress.Annals of botany · 2018Review
- Quantitative dissection of variations in root growth rate: a matter of cell proliferation or of cell expansion?Journal of experimental botany · 2018Article
- Root Tip Shape Governs Root Elongation Rate under Increased Soil Strength.Plant physiology · 2017Article
- Non-invasive Protocol for Kinematic Monitoring of Root Growth under Infrared Light.Bio-protocol · 2017Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Strong regions and physical barriers in soils may slow root elongation, leading to reduced water and nutrient uptake and decreased yield. In this study, the biomechanical responses of roots to axial mechanical forces were assessed by combining 3D live imaging, kinematics and a novel mechanical sensor. This system quantified Young's elastic modulus of intact poplar roots (32MPa), a rapid <0.2 mN touch-elongation sensitivity, and the critical elongation force applied by growing roots that resulted in bending. Kinematic analysis revealed a multiphase bio-mechanical response of elongation rate and curvature in 3D. Measured critical elongation force was accurately predicted from an Euler buckling model, indicating that no biologically mediated accommodation to mechanical forces influenced bending during this short period of time. Force applied by growing roots increased more than 15-fold when buckling was prevented by lateral bracing of the root. The junction between the growing and the mature zones was identified as a zone of mechanical weakness that seemed critical to the bending process. This work identified key limiting factors for root growth and buckling under mechanical constraints. The findings are relevant to crop and soil sciences, and advance our understanding of root growth in heterogeneous structured soils.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.