'To the roots of the matter' part 2: Kaisa’s responsive plants
Visual stories about plant research at Utrecht University
The visual series 'To the roots of the matter' presents stories from the Utrecht University plant labs. The second episode focuses on Kaisa Kajala’s research on the phenotypic plasticity of plants.
Want to know more?
Do you want to know more about Kaisa's research? Then read this article or check out her profile page.
Other episodes
Also check out the first episode of 'To the roots of the matter', which focuses on Professor Rashmi Sasidharan’s research on stress-resilient plants. And in the third episode, Ronnie de Jonge tells about his research on the interaction between plants and microorganisms.
Text version
The visual series titled "To the roots of the matter" presents stories from the Utrecht University plant labs. The second episode focuses on Kaisa Kajala’s research on phenotypic plasticity in plants: their ability to change in response to the environment. This ability helps plant to survive while they are rooted in one spot and have to endure all kinds of adverse conditions. Kaisa’s group works on plant roots and how they protect themselves against soil stresses such as drought, salinity and flooding through the formation of barriers. For example, pea roots form barriers made out of a wood-like material in response to drought. Kaisa and her colleagues hope to understand how and why these barriers evolved, and what are the benefits and disadvantage for the plant of restricting contact with the soil.