Land plants have developed robust roots to grow in diverse soil ecosystems. The distal end of the root tip has specialized organ called the "root cap." The root cap assists the roots in penetrating the ground, absorbing water & minerals, avoiding heavy metals, and regulating the rhizosphere microbiota. Furthermore, root cap derived auxin governs the lateral roots patterning and directs root growth under varying soil conditions. The root cap formation is hypothesized as one of the key innovations during root evolution. Morphologically diversified root caps in early land plant lineage and later in angiosperms aids in improving the adaptation of roots and, thereby, plants in diverse soil environments. This review article presents a retrospective view of the root cap’s important morphology and physiology characteristics for the root-soil interaction and their response towards various abiotic and biotic stimuli. Recent single-cell RNAseq data shed light on root cap cell-type enriched genes. We complied root cap cell-type enriched genes from Arabidopsis, rice, maize and tomato and analyzed their transcription factor binding site enrichment. Further, the putative gene regulatory networks derived from root cap enriched genes and their transcription factor regulators highlight the species-specific biological functions of root cap genes across the four plant species.
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