PLANTS PROTECT THEMSELVES: New Discovery Shows How They Escape Decay...

Researchers at Northwest A&F University discovered that plant roots actively bend away from rotting plant tissue—a response they call "saprotropism." The finding emerged accidentally when a contaminated agar plate showed every root veering from the decay. Subsequent experiments with Arabidopsis, tomatoes, and wheat confirmed the pattern: roots consistently avoided patches of decomposing apple but ignored rotting animal matter. The mechanism differs from other plant movements: instead of redistributing the growth hormone auxin, roots detect acidified zones created by decaying plants and accumulate abscisic acid to steer growth in the opposite direction, likely protecting against pathogens.