Defining sentient cells: Cell receptors in roots (Introduction)

by David Turell , Monday, December 24, 2018, 01:21 (2165 days ago) @ David Turell

Non-moving plants have to find water. Their roots sense where the water is hiding:

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/12/181222180749.htm

"Roots are critical for plants to acquire water and soluble nutrients from the soil. Water is essential for plant growth, yet changing climatic conditions makes acquiring moisture from soil even more challenging. Plants are able to adapt to different soil moisture conditions by altering their root architecture, but up until now, it was not understood how this is done.

"Root branches only form when in direct contact with soil moisture using an adaptive response termed 'hydropatterning'. Professor Malcolm Bennett of the University of Nottingham, and Professor Ari Sadanandom from the Department of Biosciences at Durham University, discovered that hydropatterning is controlled by a branching master gene called ARF7. Their teams observed plant roots lacking ARF7 were no longer able to hydropattern. The researchers concluded that when roots are exposed to moisture ARF7 remains active and promotes root branching, but when exposed to air, ARF7 is modified and inactivated, blocking root branching.

"'Plants are relatively immobile and therefore their growth and development is very much dependent on their environment. Our research has identified the particular protein which can modify, and even inactivate root branching, therefore limiting plant growth and development.
"This is hugely exciting as it opens up the possibility for us to adapt this protein interaction and potentially develop plants that could continue to branch roots even in challenging conditions such as water scarcity."

"Professor Bennett concluded: "Water is critical for plant growth, development and, ultimately, their survival. Surprisingly, understanding how plants sense water availability has eluded scientists until now. By studying how plant roots modify their branching in response to water availability, we have uncovered a novel molecular mechanism."

Comment: The finding is a logical result. Root cells have sensor molecules which direct growth of roots toward water, under this genetic control. The issue is how did it evolve naturally, because if the ability did not exist in the initial plants, they would not have survived, except in very wet areas. Why did plants end up in semi-arid areas unless they had this ability? They would not have attempted such areas unless they had this ability, which suggests they had to be designed for this ability .