Extract

Evolution of root hairs and rhizoids (Review)

doi:10.1093/aob/mcs136

...

Nearly all land plants develop tip-growing filamentous cells at the interface between the plant and the substrate, known as rhizoids when they grow on the haploid gametophyte, and root hairs in the diploid sporophyte. Jones and Dolan (pp. 205–212) review the phylogenetic distribution, development and function of rhizoids and root hairs in extant land plants. Some conserved elements of a gene regulatory network controlling rhizoid development in moss and root hair development in angiosperms have been identified, and it is suggested that root hairs evolved by the transference of rhizoid gene function from the gametophyte to the sporophyte.

Exotic invasive plants and soil microbes (Invited Review)

doi:10.1093/aob/mcs061

...

Recent studies indicate that biogeographic patterns involving invasive plants and functional aspects of soil microbes exist. Rout and Callaway (pp. 213–222) contend that this challenges the paradigm in microbial biogeography that ‘everything is everywhere’, which suggests microbes are not dispersal-limited, and are free from the basic biogeographical framework characterizing all other life on Earth. Their review focuses on the inherently biogeographic context of plant invasions and suggests microbes are not exempt from the evolutionary processes of geographical isolation and natural selection. The ecology of plant invaders and microbes indicates everything might not be everywhere.

You do not currently have access to this article.