Underground roots monitor aboveground environment by sensing stem-piped light

Abstract

Light is a critical environmental cue for plant growth and development. Plants actively monitor surrounding environments by sensing changes in light wavelength and intensity. Therefore, plants have evolved a series of photoreceptors to perceive a broad wavelength range of light. Phytochrome photoreceptors sense red and far-red light, which serves as a major photomorphogenic signal in shoot growth and morphogenesis. Notably, plants also express phytochromes in the roots, obscuring whether and how they perceive light in the soil. We have recently demonstrated that plants directly channel light to the roots through plant body to activate root phytochrome B (phyB). Stem light facilitates the nuclear import of phyB in the roots, and the photoactivated phyB triggers the accumulation of the photomorphogenic regulator ELONGATED HYPOCOTYL 5 in modulating root growth and gravitropism. Optical experiments revealed that red to far-red light is efficiently transduced through plant body. Our findings provide physical and molecular evidence, supporting that photoreceptors expressed in the underground roots directly sense light. We propose that the roots are not a passive organ but a central organ that actively monitors changes in the aboveground environment by perceiving light information from the shoots.