A Way to Interact with the World: Complex and Diverse Spatiotemporal Cell Wall Thickenings in Plant Roots

Plant cells are defined by their walls, which, in addition to providing structural support and shape, are an integral component of the nonliving extracellular space called the apoplast. Cell wall thickenings are present in many different root cell types. They come in a variety of simple and more complex structures with varying composition of lignin and suberin and can change in response to environmental stressors. The majority of these root cell wall thickenings and cell types that contain them are absent in the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana despite being present in most plant species. As a result, we know very little regarding their developmental control and function. Increasing evidence suggests that these structures are critical for responding to and facilitating adaptation to a wide array of stresses that a plant root experiences. These structures function in blocking apoplastic transport, oxygen, and water loss and enhancing root penetrative strength. In this review, we describe the most common types of cell wall thickenings in the outer cell types of plant roots—the velamen, exodermal thickenings, the sclerenchyma, and phi thickenings. Their cell-type dependency, morphology, composition, environmental responsiveness, and genetic control in vascular plants are discussed, as well as their potential to generate more stress-resilient roots in the face of a changing climate.