From Growing Roots, Clues to How Stem Cells Decide Their Fate

DURHAM, N.C. -- It might look like a comet or a shooting star, but this time-lapse video is actually a tiny plant root, not much thicker than a human hair, magnified hundreds of times as it grows under the microscope. Researchers at Duke University have been making such movies by peering at stem cells near the root’s tip and taking snapshots as they divide and multiply over time, using a technique called light sheet microscopy. The work offers more than a front row seat to the drama of growing roots. By watching how the cells divide in response to certain chemical signals, the team is…