HighlightWe present a new concept combining novel 3D scanning of the plant canopy with seamless assessment of plant water use to measure plant traits influencing the water budget.

SummaryRapid alkalinization factor (RALF) is a 49-amino-acid peptide that rapidly alkalinizes cultivated tobacco cell cultures. In the native tobacco Nicotiana attenuata, NaRALF occurs as a single-copy gene and is highly expressed in roots and petioles. Silencing the NaRALF transcript by transforming N. attenuata with an inverted-repeat construct generated plants (irRALF) with normal wild-type (WT) above-ground parts, but with roots that grew longer and produced trichoblasts that developed into abnormal root hairs. Most trichoblasts produced a localized 'bulge' without commencing root hair tip growth; fewer trichoblasts grew, but were only 10% as long as those of WT plants. The root hair phenotype was associated with slowed apoplastic pH oscillations, increased pH at the tips of trichoblasts and decreased accumulation of reactive oxygen species in the root hair initiation zone. The root hair growth phenotype was partially restored when irRALF lines were grown in a low-pH-buffered medium, and reproduced in WT plants grown in a high-pH-buffered medium. When irRALF plants were grown in pH 5.6, 6.7 and 8.1 soils together with WT plants in glasshouse experiments, they were out-competed by WT plants in basic, but not acidic, soils. When WT and irRALF lines were planted into the basic soils of the native habitat of N. attenuata in the Great Basin Desert, irRALF plants had smaller leaves, shorter stalks, and produced fewer flowers and seed capsules than did WT plants. We conclude that NaRALF is required for regulating root hair extracellular pH, the transition from root hair initiation to tip growth and plant growth in basic soils.

Many studies demonstrate resource-based trade-offs between growth and defence on a large timescale. Yet, the short-term dynamics of this growth reaction are still completely unclear, making it difficult to explain growthdefence trade-offs mechanistically. In this study, imagebased non-destructive methods were used to quantify root growth reactions happening within hours following simulated herbivore attack. The induction of wound reactions in Nicotiana attenuata in the seedling stage led to transiently decreased root growth rates. Application of the oral secretion of the specialist herbivore Manduca sexta to the leaves led to a transient decrease in root growth that was more pronounced than if a mere mechanical wounding was imposed. Root growth reduction was more pronounced than leaf growth reduction. When fatty acid-amino acid conjugates (FACs) were applied to wounds, root growth reduction occurred in the same intensity as when oral secretion was applied. Timing of the transient growth reduction coincided with endogenous bursts of jasmonate (JA) and ethylene emissions reported in literature. Simulation of a wound response by applying methyl jasmonate (MeJA) led to more prolonged negative effects on root growth. Increased nicotine concentrations, trichome lengths and densities were observed within 72 h in seedlings that were treated with MeJA or that were mechanically wounded. Overall, these reactions indicate that even in a very early developmental stage, the diversion of plant metabolism from primary (growth-sustaining) to secondary (defencerelated) metabolism can cause profound alterations of plant growth performance.

Root growth in Nicotiana attenuata is transiently reduced after application of oral secretions (OS) of Manduca sexta larvae to wounds in leaves. Feeding of M. sexta or OS elicitation is known to result in jasmonic acid (JA) and ethylene bursts, and activates a suite of defence responses. Because both plant hormones are known to strongly reduce root growth, their activation might account for the observed reduction of root growth following herbivory. To test this hypothesis, we measured primary root growth with digital image sequence processing at high temporal resolution in antisense-lipoxygenase 3 (asLOX3) and inverted repeat-coronatin-insensitive 1 (irCOI1) seedlings which are impaired in JA biosynthesis and perception, respectively, and wild-type (WT) seedlings. Higher root growth rates in irCOI1 compared with WT were observed after OS elicitation. The dynamics of wound-induced root growth reduction coincide with the dynamics of root growth reduction induced by external application of methyl JA. In an experiment with 1-methylcyclopropen (1-MCP), a potent ethylene receptor blocker, no wounding-specific difference between growth of 1-MCP-treated plants and non-treated plants was observed, suggesting that wound-induced endogenous JA and not ethylene mediates the wounding-specific reduction in root growth. Yet, inhibiting the ethylene response by applying 1-MCP led to markedly increased root growth compared with that of control plants, indicating that ethylene normally suppresses plant growth in N. attenuata seedlings.

Jasmonic acid (JA) is a crucial plant defence signalling substance that has recently been shown to mediate herbivory-induced root growth reduction in the ecological model species Nicotiana attenuata. To clarify whether JA-induced reduction of root growth might be a general response increasing plant fitness under biotic stress, a suite of experiments was performed with the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana. JA bursts were elicited in leaves of A. thaliana in different ways. Root growth reduction was neither induced by foliar application of herbivore oral secretions nor by direct application of methyl jasmonate to leaves. Root growth reduction was observed when leaves were infected with the pathogen Pseudomonas syringae pv. tomato, which persistently induces the JA signalling pathway. Yet, high resolution growth analyses of this effect in wild type and JA biosynthesis knock-out mutants showed that it was elicited by the bacterial toxin coronatine that suggests ethylene-but not JA-induced root growth reduction in A. thaliana. Overall, the results demonstrate that the reaction of root growth to herbivore-induced JA signalling differs among species, which is discussed in the context of different ecological defence strategies among species.