Breaking new ground: Decoding the root's molecular circuits to penetrate compacted soil.

Penetration capacity is a central root phenotype for enhancing rooting into compacted soils and improving abiotic stress tolerance in crop plants, but the molecular mechanisms are unclear. In this issue of Developmental Cell , Xu et al. demonstrate the vital role of the FER-PIF3-PIEZO circuitry in controlling primary root penetrability into compacted substrates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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