ABSTRACT
The past 5 years have seen a significant increase in interest in root hair biology, especially in their cell and molecular biology. Current major areas in root hair research can be loosely grouped into four parts: cell biology, physiology, genetics, and plantmicrobe interactions, though the last group encompasses aspects of the previous three (Ridge and Emons, 2000). Attempting to summarize these areas in a short chapter will give none of them justice and only repeat much of what is available in that monograph. Thus, we have decided to discuss two topics not previously covered in root hair chapters in Plant Roots (cf. Ridge, 1996), the role of hormones and the phenomenon of root hair tip molecules.
