Plant root growth against a mechanical obstacle: The early growth response of a maize root facing an axial resistance agrees with the Lockhart model

TL;DR

This study demonstrates that maize root growth against a mechanical obstacle can be accurately modeled using the Lockhart law, revealing early growth responses to mechanical resistance that are similar to responses to isotropic stress.

Contribution

The paper provides experimental validation that the Lockhart model accurately predicts maize root growth behavior under mechanical resistance during early growth stages.

Findings

Lockhart model quantitatively predicts force-growth relationship

Root growth features are altered by obstacle contact within 10 minutes

Early growth response to mechanical stress resembles response to isotropic perturbation

Abstract

Plant root growth is dramatically reduced in compacted soils, affecting the growth of the whole plant. Through a model experiment coupling force and kinematics measurements, we probed the force-growth relationship of a primary root contacting a stiff resisting obstacle, that mimics the strongest soil impedance variation encountered by a growing root. The growth of maize roots just emerging from a corseting agarose gel and contacting a force sensor (acting as an obstacle) was monitored by time-lapse imaging simultaneously to the force. The evolution of the velocity field along the root was obtained from kinematics analysis of the root texture with a PIV derived-technique. A triangular fit was introduced to retrieve the elemental elongation rate or strain rate. A parameter-free model based on the Lockhart law quantitatively predicts how the force at the obstacle modifies several features of the growth distribution (length of the growth zone, maximal elemental elongation rate, velocity) during the first 10 minutes. These results suggest a strong similarity of the early growth responses elicited either by a directional stress (contact) or by an isotropic perturbation (hyperosmotic bath).