Discovering How Root Sense Hard Soils
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Nottingham
Department Name: Sch of Biosciences
Abstract
Soil compaction represents a major challenge facing modern agriculture. When combined with other stresses
like drought, soil compaction can reduce crop yields by up to 75% and causes billions of Euros in losses
annually. The GROUNDBREAKING project addresses how plant roots sense different levels of soil
compaction and modify their growth. This Project builds on my recent discovery that root responses to a
high level of soil compaction are controlled by the gaseous signal "ethylene" (Pandey et al., 2021, Science,
Huang et al., 2022, PNAS). However, agriculture soils vary greatly in terms of their hardness. Europe, in
addition to 36-million hectares of highly compacted soil, contains 25-million-hectares of soil prone to medium
compaction. Therefore, discovering which signalling pathways control root sensing of low to medium and
high to very high levels of soil compaction is vital for developing more climate resilient crops.
I hypothesise that roots employ novel volatile signals to sense medium levels of soil compaction, and
mechanical signalling pathways to sense very high level of soil compaction. The premise of this novel
signalling paradigm is based on the size of volatile signalling molecules and soil pores that impact the ability
of gaseous signals to diffuse through compacted soil. However, when soil pore size is too small to allow
gaseous exchange for even small signals like ethylene, mechanical signalling will take over to control root
responses in very highly compacted soil.
The GROUNDBREAKING project will pioneer the characterisation of novel volatile and mechanical
signalling pathways I have recently identified control root compaction responses, revealing their underlying
molecular, cellular and tissue-scale mechanisms, then creating a new paradigm for root-soil signalling. To
realise these ambitious goals, I will integrate interdisciplinary expertise in soil physics, state-of-the-art non-invasive imaging,
cutting edge molecular biology and genetic approaches under natural soil conditions.
The GROUNDBREAKING project is also very timely as the new knowledge generated about compaction
responses will underpin efforts to engineer crop roots to grow deeper and access more reliable water resources.
like drought, soil compaction can reduce crop yields by up to 75% and causes billions of Euros in losses
annually. The GROUNDBREAKING project addresses how plant roots sense different levels of soil
compaction and modify their growth. This Project builds on my recent discovery that root responses to a
high level of soil compaction are controlled by the gaseous signal "ethylene" (Pandey et al., 2021, Science,
Huang et al., 2022, PNAS). However, agriculture soils vary greatly in terms of their hardness. Europe, in
addition to 36-million hectares of highly compacted soil, contains 25-million-hectares of soil prone to medium
compaction. Therefore, discovering which signalling pathways control root sensing of low to medium and
high to very high levels of soil compaction is vital for developing more climate resilient crops.
I hypothesise that roots employ novel volatile signals to sense medium levels of soil compaction, and
mechanical signalling pathways to sense very high level of soil compaction. The premise of this novel
signalling paradigm is based on the size of volatile signalling molecules and soil pores that impact the ability
of gaseous signals to diffuse through compacted soil. However, when soil pore size is too small to allow
gaseous exchange for even small signals like ethylene, mechanical signalling will take over to control root
responses in very highly compacted soil.
The GROUNDBREAKING project will pioneer the characterisation of novel volatile and mechanical
signalling pathways I have recently identified control root compaction responses, revealing their underlying
molecular, cellular and tissue-scale mechanisms, then creating a new paradigm for root-soil signalling. To
realise these ambitious goals, I will integrate interdisciplinary expertise in soil physics, state-of-the-art non-invasive imaging,
cutting edge molecular biology and genetic approaches under natural soil conditions.
The GROUNDBREAKING project is also very timely as the new knowledge generated about compaction
responses will underpin efforts to engineer crop roots to grow deeper and access more reliable water resources.
Publications
Peralta Ogorek L
(2024)
Soil compaction sensing mechanisms and root responses
in Trends in Plant Science
Scharwies J
(2025)
Moisture-responsive root-branching pathways identified in diverse maize breeding germplasm
in Science
| Title | https://rice-singlecell.shinyapps.io/orvex_app/ |
| Description | Single cell transcriptomic database grown in gel, soil and compacted soil conditions. |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2025 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | Rice root researchers are using this database to find out whether the candidate gene respond to soil condtions. |
| URL | https://rice-singlecell.shinyapps.io/orvex_app/ |
| Description | Controlling Heavy Metal Uptake In Wheat Using Microbial Synthetic Communities |
| Organisation | Agricultural University of Hebei |
| Country | China |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | - UK researchers gain access to the newly established protocol for efficient cellular Pi visualization. - UK researchers would gain access to a novel system for genome editing in rice. - UK researchers would gain access to platforms with different long-term field experiments on soils with different nutritional characteristics. - Researchers from the UK and China will determine the root phenotype and the radial nutrient distribution of Arabidopsis and Rice ionomic mutants colonized by microbes, as happens in nature. - Partners would hold workshops and training events to share knowledge on the integration of the root phenotype with its function in mineral nutrition with members of the scientific communities. |
| Collaborator Contribution | - The China Partnering award would promote the exchange of staff, expertise and facilities between China and UK labs working in the area of mineral nutrition, microbiome, and root phenotyping. - China researchers gain access to the state-of-art microCT and Laser Ablation Tomography (LAT) facilities at Nottingham to image root architecture in soil in 3/4D, and root anatomy. - China researchers will have access to the state of the art ICP-MS for high-throughput and single cell ionomic analyses. - China researchers will gain access to bacterial collections for the design of bacterial synthetic communities. |
| Impact | no publications yet |
| Start Year | 2024 |