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## Meet the editor

Takuji Ohyama has been a Professor in the Department of Agricultural Chemistry, Tokyo University of Agriculture since 2017. He obtained a Ph.D. degree from the University of Tokyo in 1980, and he was a Professor of Niigata University from 1982 to 2017. He has served as a Dean of the Graduate School of Science and Technology at Niigata University (2010-2014). He was a president of the Japanese Society of Soil Science and

Plant Nutrition from 2007 to 2009. His research interests are: nitrogen fixation and metabolism in soybean plants, new technology of deep placement of slow release nitrogen fertilizers for soybean cultivation, and nitrogen and carbon metabolism in tulip, curcuma, sugarcane, rice, and cucumber plants. He is also interested in the use of stable isotopes.

Contents

**Section 1**

from Nitrogen Status

*by Abha Mishra*

**Section 2**

**Section 3**

Nitrogen Transport in Barley

under Abiotic Stresses

Mycorrhizal Function *by Yoshihiro Kobae*

*and Asaka Takahashi*

**Preface III**

Root Structure and Function **1**

**Chapter 1 3**

**Chapter 2 17**

**Chapter 3 31**

Plant Microbe Interactions **43**

**Chapter 4 45**

**Chapter 5 67**

Metabolites and Human Health **81**

**Chapter 6 83**

The Role of Plant Growth-Promoting Bacteria in the Growth of Cereals

*by Martino Schillaci, Sneha Gupta, Robert Walker and Ute Roessner*

The Infection Unit: An Overlooked Conceptual Unit for Arbuscular

*by Hiroki Matsuoka, Kei Kumakura, Taito Kobayashi, Wataru Kobayashi* 

Salted Radish Root Biology during Food Processing

Morphological and Physiological Root Plasticity and Its Relationships with

Shoot Growth of Rice with Water Regimes and Microbial Densities

Protease Activity in the Rhizosphere of Tomato Plants Is Independent

*by Hannah Holzgreve, Manuela Eick and Christine Stöhr*

*by Salwa Abdel-latif, Hanan Abou-Zeid and Kuni Sueyoshi*

### Contents


Preface

People love beautiful flowers; however, people usually don't care about the roots hidden in the soil. Most plants have roots, which anchor the plant in soil and physically support the above-ground part of the plant. In addition, roots absorb water and nutrients from the soil and transport this to the shoot. In return, roots obtain photoassimilates from the shoots to support the root growth and function. Although plants have a wide variety of above-ground parts with respect to size, color, and shape of the flowers, leaves, and stems, the primary structure of the root is surprisingly similar among plant species. The root initiates from a seed, root, or stem, and the root grows by cell proliferation in the meristem tissue in the root tip, and the cells differentiate into the epidermis, cortex, and stele. Water and nutrients are absorbed through the cell membrane of epidermis and cortex via transporters or channels. The water and nutrients are transported to the above-ground parts of the plant via xylem vessels. The root growth and functions are affected by various abiotic and biotic environmental conditions, such as levels of water, salt, acid stresses, and the presence of soil diseases. However, beneficial microorganisms such as rhizobia, mycorrhizal fungi, and some microbes in the rhizosphere help plant growth and nutrient absorption. This book intends to provide some up-to-date

This book describes new aspects of root biology related to growth, physiology, and functions. There are three sections in this book, 1) Root Structure and Function, 2)

In the first section, protease activity in the rhizosphere of tomato plants was observed by rhizoboxes in relation to plant growth parameter and nitrogen supply (Chapter 1). Chapter 2 presents the morphological and physiological root plasticity in rice investigated by the relationship with water regime and soil bacterial densities. Chapter 3 describes the analysis of nitrogen transport in barley by tracer experiments using positron emitting 13N and stable 15N labeled

In the second section, Chapter 4 studies the importance of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) and the main mechanisms of the interaction between PGPR and plants. Chapter 5 looks at the new findings of the short life span of the infection

unit of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) colonized in the host roots.

In the third section, Chapter 6 describes the changes in the concentration of metabolites in salted white radish root, a traditional Japanese food, during food

Plant Microbe Interactions, and 3) Metabolites and Human Health.

knowledge of root biology.

nitrate.

processing.
