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Plant roots integrate environmental signals with development using exquisite spatiotemporal control. This is apparent in the deposition of suberin, an apoplastic diffusion barrier, which regulates flow of water, solutes and gases, and is environmentally plastic. Suberin is considered a hallmark of endodermal differentiation but is absent in the tomato endodermis. Instead, suberin is present in the exodermis, a cell type that is absent in the model organismArabidopsis thaliana. Here we demonstrate that the suberin regulatory network has the same parts driving suberin production in the tomato exodermis and theArabidopsisendodermis. Despite this co-option of network components, the network has undergone rewiring to drive distinct spatial expression and with distinct contributions of specific genes. Functional genetic analyses of the tomato MYB92 transcription factor and ASFT enzyme demonstrate the importance of exodermal suberin for a plant water-deficit response and that the exodermal barrier serves an equivalent function to that of the endodermis and can act in its place. 

Summary Understanding the impact of elevated CO₂(eCO₂) in global agriculture is important given climate change projections. Breeding climate‐resilient crops depends on genetic variation within naturally varying populations. The effect of genetic variation in response to eCO₂is poorly understood, especially in crop species. We describe the different ways in whichSolanum lycopersicumand its wild relativeS. pennelliirespond to eCO₂, from cell anatomy, to the transcriptome, and metabolome. We further validate the importance of translational regulation as a potential mechanism for plants to adaptively respond to rising levels of atmospheric CO₂.