Fig. 1

General workflow of experimental steps A) plant cultivation B) sample collection, C) analysis used in research (gene expression and hormone analysis) and D) samples used in comparative gene expression. Note that the differences in taproot tip morphology between rhizotron and container seedlings were clearly visible when the seedlings were approximately 10 weeks old (Fig. 1A), although differences in taproots length occurred at least 2 weeks before- at the time of harvest. At that time (taproots of rhizotron seedlings were longer (23 cm on average) than those of container seedlings on average 13.7 cm). Note also the similarity in taproot tip morphology between rhizotron and transplanted seedlings (Fig. 1A). MZ – meristematic zone; EZ – elongation zone; DEG—Differentially expressed genes; GO – Gene Ontology; KEGG – Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes; IAA – indole-3-acetic acid; IBA – indole-3-butyric acid; IA-Ala – indole-3-acetyl-L-alanine; IA-Leu – indole-3-acetyl-L-leucine; IA-Phe – indole-3-acetyl-L-phenylalanine; IA-ME – indole-3-acetyl-L-methionine; tZ – trans-Zeatin; 2iP –N6-(2-Isopentenyl)adenine; GA3, GA1, GA7, GA4 – gibberellins 3,1,7,4; JA – jasmonic acid; MeJA – methyl jasmonate; ACC—1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid; ABA – abscisic acid; SA – salicylic acid. An asterisk (*) denotes a research variant for which the transcriptome was not sequenced