Tropism articles from across Nature Portfolio

Plants have evolved strategies to protect root tips from the damage of stresses. Chang et al., show that root tips are covered with wax, which can efficiently protect root tips from osmotic stress and alter root hydrotropism in Arabidopsis.

This study reports that the SOMBRERO, a root cap-localized transcription factor, determines root halotropic response to salt stress via spatiotemporally modulating AUX1-depdenent auxin redistribution in the root tip.

Plants often need to bend their organs during their growth and development. It is a complex process, and the different mechanisms involved are discussed in the light of recent findings about genes, signalling, modelling and biomechanics.

Directionality of auxin transport is determined by polar localization of PIN-FORMED (PIN) proteins. Here the authors show that Arabidopsis WAV3 E3 ubiquitin ligases contribute to PIN polarity by selectively antagonizing ectopic deposition of de novo synthesized PIN proteins following cell division.