Mycorrhizas and root architecture

Summary Roots function dually as a support system and as the nutrient uptake organ of plants. Root morphology changes in response to the soil environment to minimize the metabolic cost of maintaining the root system, while maximizing nutrient acquisition. In response to nutrient-limiting conditions, plants may increase root fineness or specific root length (root length per gram root weight), root/shoot ratio, or root hair length and number. Each of these adaptations involves a different metabolic cost to the plant, with root hair formation as the least costly change, buffering against more costly changes in root/shoot ratio. Mycorrhizal symbiosis is another alternative to such changes. Plants with high degrees of dependence on the symbiosis have coarser root systems, less plasticity in root/shoot ratio, and develop fewer root hairs in low-fertility soils. In nutrient-limited soils, plants highly dependent on mycorrhiza reduce metabolic cost by developing an even more coarse or magnolioid root system, which is less able to obtain nutrients and thus creates a greater dependence of the plant on the symbiosis. These subtle changes in root architecture may be induced by mycorrhizal fungi and can be quantified using topological analysis of rooting patterns. The ability of mycorrhizal fungi to elicit change in root architecture appears to be limited to plant species which are highly dependent upon mycorrhizal symbiosis.