Plant root systems are highly plastic in response to
environmental stimuli. Improved nutrient acquisition
can increase fertilizer use efficiency and is critical for
crop production. Recent analyses of field-grown crops
highlighted the importance of root system architecture
(RSA) in nutrient acquisition. This indicated that it is
feasible in practice to exploit genotypes or mutations
giving rise to optimal RSA for crop design in the future,
especially with respect to plant breeding for infertile
soils.