Root Hairs, Softcover reprint of the original 1st ed. 2000 Cell and Molecular Biology

Root hairs are tip-growing cells that originate from epidennal cells called trichoblasts. Their role may be simply thought of as extending the surface area of the root to facilitate absorption of nutrients and water. However, as you will see in this book, the root hair is far more than that. To an increasingly larger number of plant biologists, the root hair is a model cell. It grows in much the same way as a pollen tube, by sending vast numbers of vesicles containing cell wall precursors to a rounded apical dome, the tip. Once the trichoblast becomes committed to root hair fonnation, it no longer divides. The root hair cell has a migrating nucleus and a complex cytoskeleton. It has a varied cell wall. It is easy to observe through differential interference contrast microscopy because there are no other cells around it to disturb the image. Cytoplasmic streaming is exceptionally clear, and amyloplasts and even mitochondria and endoplasmic reticulum can be seen without reporter labelling in some species. Root hair mutants are easy to distinguish and catalogue. Plant honnones are involved in their growth and development. It is thus an almost ideal plant cell for experimental manipulation and observation. The root hair is also involved in interactions with soil microbes, as you will learn from later chapters of the book.

Chapter 1: Root Hair Ultrastructure and Tip Growth/M.E. GALWAY Chapter 2: The Role of Microtubules in Root Hair Growth and Cellulose Microfibril Deposition/T. KETELAAR AND A.M.C. EMONS Chapter 3: The Root Hair Actin Cytoskeleton as Backbone, Highway, Morphogenetic Instrument and Target for Signalling/ J. ESSELING, N. DE RUIJTER, AND A.M.C. EMONS Chapter 4: Cell Cleaving: A Method for Studying the Extracellular Matrix-Cytoskeleton-Plasma Membrane Continuum in Root Hairs/A.M.C. EMONS AND J.A. TRAAS Chapter 5: Advanced Fluorescence Microspectroscopic Methods for the Study of Single Living Root Hairs/J. GOEDHART AND T.W.J. GADELLA JR. Chapter 6: Molecules at the Tips of Root Hairs/R.W. RIDGE AND C.A. FREDRIKSSON Chapter 7: Hormonal Control of Root Hair Growth and Development/M. KATSUMI, M. IZUMO, AND R.W. RIDGE Chapter 8: Electrobiology of Root Hairs/R.R. LEW Chapter 9: Calcium in Root Hair Growth/T. BIBIKOVA AND S. GILROY Chapter 10: pH Regulation in and by Root Hairs/H.H. FELLE AND A. HERRMANN Chapter 11: Evidence for the Uptake of Non-Essential Ions and Essential Nutrient Ions by Root Hairs and Their Effect on Root Hair Development/R.L. PETERSON AND K.J. STEVENS Chapter 12: Specification of Root Hair Cells/J. SCHIEFELBEIN Chapter 13: Root Hair Genes/A. CAVELL AND C.S. GRIERSON Chapter 14: Infection of Root Hairs by Rhizobia: Infection Thread Development with Emphasis on the Microtubular Cytoskeleton/A.C.J. TIMMERS Chapter 15: Nod-Factors in Symbiotic Development of Root Hairs/H.R. IRVING, N.M. BOUKLI, M.N. KELLY, AND W.J. BROUGHTON Chapter 16: Rhizobium-Induced Plant Gene Expression in Root Hairs/A. JAHRAUS AND T. BISSELING Chapter 17: The Involvement of Root Hairs in Mycorrhizal Associations/F.C. GUINEL AND A.M. HIRSCH Chapter 18: Root Hair-Frankia Interactions in Actinorhizal Symbioses/T.V. BHUVANESWARI AND B. SOLHEIM.