A Lecture in Plant Biology: Control of Arabidopsis Root Development

Dr. Philip Benfey, Professor of Biology, Director of the Duke Center for Systems Biology and contributing author of the 2012 Annual Review of Plant Biology, talks about his article Control of Arabidopsis Root Development. In this lecture, he discusses the cellular and genetic mechanisms that underlie root formation in Arabidopsis thaliana, from embryonic roots to lateral roots. He also describes how the roots react to environmental stress, such as high salinity. Finally, he explains how molecular genetics, genomics, and systems biology made it possible to control root development.