Lynch 9722151 Phosphorus is an essential nutrient for plant growth; however, in many soils, phosphorus is an immobile resource which makes phosphorus acquisition an obstacle for plants. In the United States, phosphorus overfertilazation in agricultural has added to the pollution of the Chesapeake Bay, the Florida Everglades, and other major watersheds. To increase the availability of phosphorus in naturally occurring soils and to decrease the amount of fertilizer used in agricultural practices, it is important to study how plant roots extract phosphorus from the soil. Plant root hairs are subcellular extensions from the root epidermis that are hypothetically important in the acquisition of immobile resources such as phosphorus. The PI's previous work with Arabidopsis thatliana has shown that root hair length, growth rate, and density is highly regulated by phosphorus availability. The goal of the PI's research is to determine the importance of root hairs in overall plant phosphorus nutrition, characterize the response of increased root hair density with decreased phosphorus availability, and dissect the cellular mechanism of root hair growth in response to exotenous phosphorus nutrition. Quantitative ratio fluorescence microscopy and root hair mutant plants will be used to study the response of root hairs to phosphorus availability.
