Fig. 5

Comparison between plants grown with the shoot inside and outside the agar-filled Petri dish 3 weeks after germination. Arabidopsis Col-0 plants with the shoot grown inside the plate showed significant differences in the spatial distribution of roots compared to plants with the leaves expanding outside the plate (a; mean value ± SE, n = 20–40). Box plots represent the distribution of values of root traits (b) and shoot fresh weight (c); median, 25th and 75th percentiles and extremes are shown. * indicates significant difference between plants with the shoot inside and outside the plate (P < 0.05)