Fig. 3

Comparison between Arabidopsis Col-0 plants grown with the shoot inside and outside the agar-filled Petri dish. Plants with the shoot grown inside the plate showed significant differences in the following root traits compared to plants with the leaves expanding outside the plate: length of primary (a) and lateral (b) roots, ratio between lateral and primary root length (c), number (d), root density (e) and branching angle (f) of lateral roots as well as spatial distribution of roots (g) and root curvature (h; mean value ± SE, n = 20–40)