NOBLE NEWS
from The Samuel Roberts Noble Foundation
Digging Deep One of the Noble Foundation's new research clusters aims to answer pivotal questions about roots. ther than the marshmallowsmothered sweet potatoes served up at Thanksgiving every year, roots don’t get much public adoration. They do their jobs with little fanfare, huddled out of sight, while leaves and flowers get the glory. So in the interest of root respect, a few facts: • The deepest root ever documented (on a wild fig tree in Africa) burrowed 400 feet into the ground. • Prairie grass has more bulk underground in the roots than above ground in the leaves. • More than half the surface area of a root is practically invisible, made up of tiny hairs. As they snake down into the soil, roots anchor the plant and – largely through those root hairs – soak up water and nutrients to send upward. But much about roots remains a mystery. Scientists don’t know, for example, exactly why some roots can weather a drought, or survive for months buried in frozen ground, or even manage the hydraulics of channeling sometimes thousands of gallons of water each day against the force of gravity. For that matter, scientists still can’t fully explain why roots grow down and not up. “There are still many unanswered questions,” said Elison Blancaflor, Ph.D., of the Plant Biology Division at the Noble Foundation. That’s why Blancaflor is heading up the Plant Growth and Development Research Cluster, which aims to dig deeper into root science. Formed in 2014, the cluster is one of five research clusters that unite the scientific muscle of the Noble Foundation behind a single purpose. (The other research clusters are Low-Input Agriculture, Plant-Microbe Interactions, Breeder’s Toolbox and Plant-Animal Interactions.) In addition 28 — Oklahoma Country
"We lack basic information on many aspects of root biology, which is a crucial step for developing crop varieties with more efficient root systems." – Elison Blancaflor, Ph.D. to Blancaflor, Xuefeng Ma, Ph.D., of the Forage Improvement Division’s small grains breeding laboratory, helps steer the cluster. But members of all three operating divisions are involved, including James Rogers, Ph.D., an agronomist in the Agricultural Division's Center for Advanced Agricultural Systems and Technology. While each division has pursued its
own projects throughout the decades, the clusters create research teams that are greater than the sum of their parts. All of the groups are tackling the most formidable agricultural problems facing farmers and ranchers of the Southern Great Plains and beyond. The Plant Growth and Development Research Cluster identified roots as one early focus because so much knowledge