This edition of the Arabidopsis Research Roundup pleasingly includes four Open Access articles. Firstly Jose Gutierrez-Marcos leads an investigation into stress-induced memory, secondly Richard Morris is the corresponding author on a study that has developed a new model that explains waves of calcium signalling that response to environmental stresses. Thirdly is a UK-US collaboration that defines the factors that control carotenoid accumulation in seeds. Finally Chris Hawes leads a study that characterises the novel localisation of a subset of auxin biosynthetic enzymes.
Wibowo A, Becker C, Marconi G, Durr J, Price J, Hagmann J, Papareddy R, Putra H, Kageyama J, Becker J, Weigel D, Gutierrez-Marcos J (2016) Hyperosmotic stress memory in Arabidopsis is mediated by distinct epigenetically labile sites in the genome and is restricted in the male germline by DNA glycosylase activity Elife http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.13546 Open Access
Jose Gutierrez-Marcos is the corresponding author on this pan-European study that adds to our increasing knowledge about the role of generational memory in the response to stress. Distinct regions of the Arabidopsis genome are susceptible to fluctuations in the level of DNA methylation in response to hyperosmotic stress, a condition that persists into a following generation. This effect is transmitted through the female lineage and the authors investigate this effect in more detail by focussing on a single epigenetically targeted locus. By designing experiments that ran over a series of generations they show that a plants ‘short term memory’ is reliant on the DNA methylation machinery and is able to transmit a distinct developmental response to immediate offspring.
Evans MJ, Choi WG, Gilroy S, Morris RJ (2016) A ROS-assisted Calcium Wave Dependent on AtRBOHD and TPC1 Propagates the Systemic Response to Salt Stress in Arabidopsis Roots. Plant Physiol.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1104/pp.16.00215 Open Access
Richard Morris (JIC) leads this US-UK collaboration that investigates the downstream mechanisms that occur after the waves of ROS and Ca2+ signalling that respond to environmental stresses. The authors show that the current model for propagation of this wave, which relies upon a diffusive wave Ca2+ signalling, is unable to explain the speed of transmission of the wave. The authors develop a new model that adds a ROS-signalling component to explain the velocity of the Ca2+ wave and experimentally verify that their model could represent the in vivo situation. In addition they show that the effectiveness of this ROS-release signalling module is dependent on the activity of the vacuolar ion channel TPC1 and the NADPH Oxidase AtRBOHD.
Gonzalez-Jorge S, Mehrshahi P, Magallanes-Lundback M, Lipka AE, Angelovici R, Gore MA, DellaPenna D (2016) ZEAXANTHIN EPOXIDASE activity potentiates carotenoid degradation in maturing Arabidopsis seed. Plant Physiol.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1104/pp.16.00604 Open Access
The lead author of this US-led study is Sabrina Gonzalez-Jorge who is currently a post-doc in GARNet committee member Ian Henderson’s lab in Cambridge. This study elucidates nine loci that are involved in carotenoid homeostasis in Arabidopsis seeds and shows that plants lacking the ZEAXANTHIN EPOXIDASE (ZEP) protein have a six-fold reduction in total seed carotenoids. Natural variation within the ZEP gene is able to account for the fine-tuning of seed carotenoid content and acts upstream of two previously characterised CAROTENOID CLEAVAGE DIOXYGENASE enzymes. Importantly, and somewhat surprisingly, four of the nine Arabidopsis loci are thought to have conserved function in determining the composition of carotenoids in maize kernels. This demonstrates that studying this phenomonen in Arabidopsis is highly relevant for study of the same process in economically important crops.
Kriechbaumer V, Botchway SW, Hawes C (2016) Localization and interactions between Arabidopsis auxin biosynthetic enzymes in the TAA/YUC-dependent pathway J Exp Bot.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erw195 Open Access
Chris Hawes (Oxford Brookes) leads this study that localised a subset of enzymes involved in auxin biosynthesis to the endoplasmic reticulum. In addition certain of these enzymes appear to physically interact. This localisation is confirmed by showing ER microsomal fractions are able to undertake auxin biosynthesis. The auxin signalling pathway is complex and well characterised yet this finding adds another layer of regulation that might influence the dynamics of auxin activity.
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