Coordination of root growth with root morphology, physiology and defense functions in response to root pruning in Platycladus orientalis

•A growth‒defense tradeoff following root pruning.•Root growth lagged behind root physiology after root pruning.•The growth–defense tradeoff was induced by indole-3-acetic acid.•Proteomic analysis supported a growth–defense tradeoff.•Root pruning altered the expression of genes at the protein and mRNA levels.