Natural allelic variation of FRO2 modulates Arabidopsis root growth under iron deficiency

Iron is an essential nutrient that plants assimilate from the soil. Moderate iron deficiency induces an increase in primary root length and lateral root production. Satbhai et al. examined natural variation of root responses and showed a correlation between root length and allelic variation at the FRO2 locus which encodes a membrane-bound ferric chelate reductase involved in the reduction of Fe³⁺ to Fe²⁺ prior to uptake into the root. Specifically, elevated expression levels of FRO2 are correlated with longer roots in low iron conditions.  Nature Comms. 10.1038/ncomms15603