Low phosphorus (P) availability is one of the most limiting factors for plant productivity in many natural and agricultural ecosystems. Plants display a wide range of adaptive responses to cope with low P stress, which generally serve to enhance P availability in the soil and to increase its uptake by roots. In Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), primary root growth inhibition and increased lateral root formation have been reported to occur in response to P limitation. To gain knowledge of the genetic mechanisms that regulate root architectural responses to P availability, we designed a screen for identifying Arabidopsis mutants that fail to arrest primary root growth when grown under low P conditions. Eleven low phosphorus insensitive (lpi) mutants that define at least four different complementation groups involved in primary root growth responses to P availability were identified. The lpi mutants do not show the typical determinate developmental program induced by P stress in the primary root. Other root developmental aspects of the low P rescue system, including increased root hair elongation and anthocyanin accumulation, remained unaltered in lpi mutants. In addition to the insensitivity of primary root growth inhibition, when subjected to P deprivation, lpi mutants show a reduced induction in the expression of several genes involved in the P starvation rescue system (PHOSPHATE TRANSPORTER 1 and 2, PURPLE ACID PHOSPHATASE 1, ACID PHOS-PHATASE 5, and INDUCED BY PHOSPHATE STARVATION 1). Our results provide genetic support for the role of P as an important signal for postembryonic root development and root meristem maintenance and show a crosstalk in developmental and biochemical responses to P deprivation.Phosphorus (P) is one of the most important nutrients for plant growth and development. P plays a myriad of essential biological functions as a structural element in phospholipids and nucleic acids, in energy metabolism, in the regulation of enzymatic activities, and in signal transduction cascades (Raghothama, 1999;Rausch and Bucher, 2002). Although the total content of P in the soil may be high, its bioavailability is generally very low due to mineralization and fixation processes (Hinsinger, 2001). Thus, low P availability is one of the prime limiting factors for plant growth and development in many ecosystems and a major constraint for agricultural productivity in alkaline and acid soils (Ló pez- Bucio et al., 2000).Plants have evolved a wide range of adaptive strategies to adapt to P deficiency and improve P mobilization and uptake from the soil (Raghothama, 1999), including an increase in the synthesis and secretion of organic acids, which enhance the solubilization of P from insoluble inorganic compounds (Jones, 1998); an increase in the production of enzymes such as acid phosphatases and nucleases that release P from soil organic sources (Nü rnberger et al., 1990; Löffler et al., 1992;Duff et al., 1994;Chen et al., 2000); an enhanced expression of highaffinity P transporters to optimize P uptake from ...