Today's plant biologists are increasingly using the root hair as a model for investigating cell and molecular biology. This book focuses on the four major aspects of those investigations - cell biology, physiology, genetics, and symbiosis - with detailed explanations of concomitant techniques. The first part of the book deals with cell biology and includes such topics as the role of microtubules, filamentous actin, and small molecules. The middle section covers the role of hormones, electrobiology, calcium, pH, and nutrient uptake. The final chapters encompass cell biology, physiology, and...

Root hairs are tip-growing cells that originate from epidennal cells called trichoblasts. Their role may be simply thought of as extending the surface area of the root to facilitate absorption of nutrients and water. However, as you will see in this book, the root hair is far more than that. To an increasingly larger number of plant biologists, the root hair is a model cell. It grows in much the same way as a pollen tube, by sending vast numbers of vesicles containing cell wall precursors to a rounded apical dome, the tip. Once the trichoblast becomes committed to root hair fonnation, it no...