The Role of Root Apices in Shoot Growth Regulation: Support for Neurobiology at the Whole Plant Level?

This chapter reviews the potential and actual role of plant neurobiological activity for integrating function at the whole plant level. Some support is provided for the drawing of analogies between the signaling roles of plant long-distance transport systems and animal nervous systems. However, the specific findings reviewed here do not indicate that root apices function as essential neurobiological command centers involved in regulating shoot growth responses to adverse changes in the root environment.