Regarding plant stress?

Question

I have to plan a bioinformatic study on a plant. Microarray data is available for various stress treatments (drought, cold, osmotic and flood stress) on root and shoot tissues. I am a bit confused as to which tissue is more important for the perception of stress and its direct effect. I want to start with one of them as of now, since the study will get too complicated with so many stress conditions and tissues. I am not from a botany field and look for some thoughts. Sorry if my question sounds silly.Thanks a lot.

Answer 1

HI,

I've never seen specific information re this question, so I'm going to give you my perspective. The term, "root" encompases only one major organ - the root. It includes various tissues -- vascular (xylem and phloem), pericycle, cortex, and epidermis, (cambial tissue will be included if it is a woody plant). It seems that the primary factor will be water -- amount, solute concentrations, contaminants, etc.

The "shoot" includes several different major organs -- the stem, the leaf, the flower, and the fruit. The tissues involved are: vascular (xylem and phloem), epidermis (or periderm if woody), and cortex. The "shoot" will be directly exposed to more environmental factors - sun, wind, precipitation, temperature.. and in less than stellar situations, air pollution, drought, acid rain, etc. Flowering can be influenced by the length of daylight to darkness; and fruit setting can be influenced by synchronicity of pollinator and flowering. There's a LOT going on above ground. If I were designing this experiment, I would begin with the shoot tissue. Hope that helps.