A large portion of a plant is hidden below the ground. This buried root system is essential for the plant: it provides stability, water, and food. In contrast to mammals, where the body plan is final at birth, the formation of new root branches ensures that the root system keeps growing throughout a plant’s life. The labs of Prof. Ive De Smet and Prof. Tom Beeckman (VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology), together with researchers from the University of Nottingham (UK), Heidelberg University (Germany) and the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) identified a novel component that controls the development of root branches supporting plants. Their findings will be published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.