{"id":313099,"date":"2019-12-09T16:42:32","date_gmt":"2019-12-09T19:42:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/?p=313099"},"modified":"2019-12-09T16:42:32","modified_gmt":"2019-12-09T19:42:32","slug":"plants-with-miner-roots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/plants-with-miner-roots\/","title":{"rendered":"Plants with miner roots"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_313104\" style=\"max-width: 810px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/012-017_Notas_280-9-800px.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-313104 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/012-017_Notas_280-9-800px.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"1063\" srcset=\"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/012-017_Notas_280-9-800px.jpg 800w, https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/012-017_Notas_280-9-800px-250x332.jpg 250w, https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/012-017_Notas_280-9-800px-700x930.jpg 700w, https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/012-017_Notas_280-9-800px-120x159.jpg 120w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><p class=\"wp-caption-text\"><span class=\"media-credits-inline\">Diego Nascimento and Grazielle Teodoro<\/span><\/a> Its roots embedded in rock, as seen under microscope<span class=\"media-credits\">Diego Nascimento and Grazielle Teodoro<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n<p>The rupestrian grasslands of the Serra do Cip\u00f3 in the state of Minas Gerais are among the least nutritious terrains in the world. A surprising diversity of plantlife can be found there\u2014estimated at one-third of Brazilian native species\u2014often growing on boulders and rocks. <a href=\"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/2015\/03\/28\/underground-strategies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Researchers analyzing these plants have discovered various creative ways that they search for nutrients<\/a>. And now they have identified two new techniques used by two species of the velloziaceae family (<em>Tomentosa Barbacenia<\/em> and <em>B. macrantha). <\/em>The ends of the roots of<em> B. tomentosa<\/em> and <em>B. macrantha<\/em> are covered in tiny hairs that secrete an acid capable of eroding rock and release phosphates (compounds that contain phosphorus), which encourage cell multiplication and plant growth (<em>Functional Ecology<\/em>, March 9). The roots gradually penetrate through the rock and take hold, absorbing the phosphorus. These roots have earned an official name: vellozioid roots. The previously unseen mechanism was identified using traditional and electron microscopes, as well as a series of other techniques, such as X-ray fluorescence and chromatography. Coordinated by biologist Rafael Oliveira of the University of Campinas (UNICAMP), the study demonstrates a new function of the roots of these plants. &#8220;They play a role in rock weathering and soil formation that before now had not been recognized,&#8221; he says. &#8220;Geologists know that water, wind, and temperature play this role. Apparently plants can have more important impacts than we thought.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Study demonstrates a new function of the roots of <em>B. tomentosa<\/em> and <em>B. macrantha<\/em>","protected":false},"author":475,"featured_media":313100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1651],"tags":[206,213,240],"coauthors":[785],"class_list":["post-313099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-notes","tag-biodiversity","tag-botany","tag-geology"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/475"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313099"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":313108,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313099\/revisions\/313108"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313099"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/revistapesquisa.fapesp.br\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=313099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}