Intern Seminar : Léa Cascaro and Nino Despeignes
Abstract below
Mechanobiology of root hair growth – Léa Cascaro
Root hairs are cylindrical protrusions that grow from a root epidermal cell. These protrusions allow the root to increase its surface of exchange with the soil, in particular increasing nutrients absorption. Root hairs exhibit a highly polarized tip-focused growth, called tip-growth. It allows the cell to explore and invade the soil. This process depends on turgor pressure, the hydrostatic pressure that provides the internal mechanical force driving cell expansion, and a heterogeneous cell wall, that allows the polarized growth. Thus, the tight coordination between turgor pressure and cell wall mechanical properties, such as the young modulus or tip viscosity, is essential for controlled root hair elongation. We are studying, experimentally, the link between all these mechanical parameters and their role in tip growth. To do so, we developed original setups which allow us to measure in a non-invasive way, on these single cells, the mechanical parameters characterizing root hair growth and their adaptation to environmental cues.