Roots sense the edaphic water deficit, send chemical signals to shoots, and maintenance of root growth despite reduced water availability can contribute to drought tolerance through water foraging [ 22].
Stored carbohydrates in the rhizomes ensure the survival of plant and maintenance of root-associated endophytic bacterial community (Li et al. 2010) and mycorrhiza during extreme environmental conditions.
In addition, other strategies such as osmotic adjustment, maintenance of root viability, membrane stability, and accumulation of proteins and other metabolites including proline, glycine betaine, and trehalose help, directly or indirectly, in the maintenance of plant metabolism under drought stress (Huang et al. 2014; Cohen et al. 2015; Ngumbi and Kloepper 2016).
This maintenance of root growth in drying soil is beneficial to plants as they can reach deeper water resources.
It regulates cell elongation and division, the development and maintenance of root apical meristems, and other processes.
This is the prima facie for the maintenance of root growth under decreasing water in the soil.
It indicates that PDR2 is necessary for maintenance of root meristem function when external P supply is limited.
Analysis of the anthocyanninless2 mutant of Arabidopsis implicates the tissue-specific accumulation of anthocyanins in sub epidermal tissues of the root in the maintenance of root organisation [ 43].
Since maintenance of root metabolism is vital for whole plant survival under nutrient deficiency, phosphate can also be redistributed from the shoot to the root [ 74, 89].
