page_title: Trichome
section_title: Trichome and root hair development
hierarchical_section_title: Trichome / Trichome and root hair development
caption_attribution_description: English: Macro shot of red trichomes of a stem of roses Français&#160;: Macrophotographie de trichomes rouges d'une tige de roses
context_page_description: Trichomes, from the Greek τρίχωμα meaning "hair", are fine outgrowths or appendages on plants, algae, lichens, and certain protists. They are of diverse structure and function. Examples are hairs, glandular hairs, scales, and papillae. A covering of any kind of hair on a plant is an indumentum, and the surface bearing them is said to be pubescent.
context_section_description: Both trichomes and root hairs, the rhizoids of many vascular plants, are lateral outgrowths of a single cell of the epidermal layer. Root hairs form from trichoblasts, the hair-forming cells on the epidermis of a plant root. Root hairs vary between 5 and 17 micrometers in diameter, and 80 to 1,500 micrometers in length (Dittmar, cited in Esau, 1965). Root hairs can survive for two to three weeks and then die off. At the same time new root hairs are continually being formed at the top of the root. This way, the root hair coverage stays the same. It is therefore understandable that repotting must be done with care, because the root hairs are being pulled off for the most part. This is why planting out may cause plants to wilt.
  The genetic control of patterning of trichomes and roots hairs shares similar control mechanisms. Both processes involve a core of related transcription factors that control the initiation and development of the epidermal outgrowth. Activation of genes that encode specific protein transcription factors (named GLABRA1 (GL1), GLABRA3 (GL3) and TRANSPARENT TESTA GLABRA1 (TTG1)) are the major regulators of cell fate to produce trichomes or root hairs. When these genes are activated in a leaf epidermal cell, the formation of a trichrome is initiated within that cell. GL1, GL3. and TTG1 also activate negative regulators, which serve to inhibit trichrome formation in neighboring cells. This system controls the spacing of trichomes on the leaf surface. Once trichome are developed they may divide or branch. In contrast, root hairs only rarely branch. During the formation of trichomes and root hairs, many enzymes are regulated. For example, just prior to the root hair development, there is a point of elevated phosphorylase activity.
  Many of what scientists know about trichome development comes from the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana, because their trichomes are simple, unicellular, and non-glandular. The development pathway is regulated by three transcription factors: R2R3 MYB, basic helix-loop-helix, and WD40 repeat. The three groups of TFs form a trimer complex (MBW) and activate the expression of products downstream, which activates trichome formation. However, just MYBs alone act as an inhibitor by forming a negative complex.
caption: Red Trichomes on a roses stem
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