Root cap

In some plants, the root cap is quite large and obvious, while in others it is nearly impossible to find. The root cap is made of parenchyma cells that form a thimble shape, as a covering for the tip of each root. The cap serves several functions. The main function being protection as the delicate root tip pushes through soil particles. In the outer cells of the root cap, the Golgi bodies secrete a slimy substance that lodges in the walls and eventually pass to the outside. As the cells slough off, replaced from the inside, they form a slimy lubricant that aids root tip movement through the soil. In addition, to aiding movement, the slime is a supportive medium for beneficial bacteria.

The root cap serves in additional capacity in determining the root growth direction. As the root cap has a life span of about one week, it can serve for some interesting experiments. Whether the cap sloughs off or is cut off, the root will grow in random directions, as opposed to downward, until a new root cap is formed. This lends support to the notion that the root cap functions in the perception of gravity. On the sides of the root cap amyloplasts, or plastids containing starch grains, collect facing the direction of gravitational force. In documented experiments, when the root is tipped horizontally from its vertical growing position, the amyloplasts will reshift themselves to the “bottom” of the cells in which they are found. In a short time or 30 minutes to a few hours, the root will resume growing downward. While the exact nature of this gravitational response, or gravitropism, is not fully known, there is some evidence that the calcium ions found in amyloplasts do influence the distribution of growth hormones in plant cells.