How plant roots sense, react to soil flooding

While it’s been known that plant roots were capable of sensing many individual soil characteristics (water, nutrients and oxygen availability), scientists have not had any understanding of how they integrated these signals in order to respond in an appropriate way. Researchers have just discovered a mechanism that allows a plant to adjust its water status and growth according to different soil flooding conditions. The results of this study describe how roots sense and respond to soil oxygen and potassium levels jointly, so as to change their water uptake capacity. Aside from their scientific importance, these findings could make it possible to optimize crop flood tolerance.