New role for a CEP peptide and its receptor: complex control of lateral roots

Abstract

Optimized root system deployment should enable more efficient nutrient acquisition and increased crop yields. C-TERMINALLY ENCODED PEPTIDE (CEP) hormones and their receptors, which regulate root growth, could be important in research with this aim. Roberts et al. (pages 4889–4899 in this issue) suggest that the full extent of CEP function and signalling is highly complex, and we emerge with a picture of CEPs and their known receptors being involved in long-distance and possibly more local regulatory networks.