Arabidopsis Research Roundup: May 17th
This weeks Arabidopsis research roundup begins with a paper led by CPIB at the University of Nottingham that discovers a somewhat surprisingly mechanism controling Arabidopsis root hydrotropism. Next are two papers from the University of Leeds that firstly investigate how the JAGGED LATERAL ORGANS gene influences the auxin response and secondly looks at the role of redox regulation in the control of the cell cycle and seed development. Finally are two papers that look at different aspects of the plant pathogen interactions. Jonathan Jones from the John Innes Centre is a co-author on a paper that dissects the multiple gene expression networks that control plant immunity whilst Charles Melnyk at the Sainsbury lab in Cambridge is involved with work that investigates the hormonal control mechanisms that influence the invasion of parasitic plants.
Dietrich D, Pang L, Kobayashi A, Fozard JA, Boudolf V, Bhosale R, Antoni R, Nguyen T, Hiratsuka S, Fujii N, Miyazawa Y, Bae TW, Wells DM,, Owen MR,, Band LR,, Dyson RJ, Jensen OE, King JR, Tracy SR, Sturrock CJ,, Mooney SJ, Roberts JA, Bhalerao RP, Dinneny JR, Rodriguez PL, Nagatani A, Hosokawa Y, Baskin TI, Pridmore TP, De Veylder L, Takahashi H, Bennett MJ (2017) Root hydrotropism is controlled via a cortex-specific growth mechanism. Nature Plants
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nplants.2017.57
Open Access via access link: http://rdcu.be/rSsk
Malcolm Bennett (University of Nottingham) leads a broad international collaboration that looks at the response of Arabidopsis roots to water. Surprisingly they show that this response occurs not in the root meristem but in the elongation zone and is controlled by a ABA signaling mechanism. They show that hydrotropism is dependent on cell elongation in the cortex but not in any other cell file. This is different to the gravitropic response and demonstrates that these tropisms are controlled by distinct tissue-specific mechanisms. To provide for information about this paper, lead author Daniela Dietrich joins Professor Bennett to discuss this paper on the GARNet YouTube channel and speculate on the function of different root cell layers in water uptake.
Rast-Somssich MI, Žádníková P, Schmid S, Kieffer M, Kepinski S, Simon R (2017) The Arabidopsis JAGGED LATERAL ORGANS (JLO) gene sensitizes plants to auxin. J Exp Bot.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erx131 Open Access
This German-led study includes Stefan Kepinski (University of Leeds) as a co-author. They investigate the role of the JAGGED LATERAL ORGANS (JLO) transcription factor in the establishment of the stem cell niche in the root meristem. JLO interacts with auxin signaling pathway by influencing the degradation of the key regulator BODENLOS (BDL) via the TIR1-mediated degradation pathway. In jlo mutants BDL remains present in the meristem, which does not correctly develop. They discover a novel regulatory mechanism wherein the dosage of the TIR1 and AFB1 auxin receptors is reduced, which in turn prevents BDL degradation. This shows that the JLO transcription factor is a key upstream regulator of meristem formation by playing a significant role in the fine control of the auxin response.
De Simone A, Hubbard R, Vinegra de la Torre N, Velappan Y, Wilson M, Considine MJ, Soppe W, Foyer CH (2017) Redox changes during the cell cycle in the embryonic root meristem of Arabidopsis thaliana. Antioxid Redox Signal. http://dx.doi.org/10.1089/ars.2016.6959
Open Access
Christine Foyer (University of Leeds) collaborates with Australian and German researchers to unpick the role that redox regulation plays in the control of the plant cell cycle. They use an in vivo redox reporter (roGFP2) to show that a cycle of reduction and oxidation occurs throughout the cell cycle. Their experimental system is Arabidopsis seed germination and they show that vitamin c defective mutants with low redox buffering capacity have altered germination rates that coincide with a changed dry seed transcriptome. Overall this paper demonstrates that the cell cycle and embryo size are linked to redox regulation.
Hillmer RA, Tsuda K, Rallapalli G, Asai S, Truman W, Papke MD, Sakakibara H, Jones JDG, Myers CL, Katagiri F (2017) The highly buffered Arabidopsis immune signaling network conceals the functions of its components. PLoS Genet. http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1006639
Open Access
Jonathan Jones (John Innes Centre) is a co-author on this Japanese-led research that studies the signaling networks invovled in plant immunity. They use a systems biology approach to dissect the network of interactions that occur within the transcriptome when plants are exposed to the immune stimulant flagellin-22. This analysis discovers that there are separated networks that represent pathways controlled by different higher-level signals, such as jasmonate or salicylic acid. This provides the entire network with a degree of buffering that allows a more effective response to pathogen attack. This type of network analysis is able to reveal facets of the defence response that would not be possible when using simple null mutant analysis so adds consideration detail to the already complicated story of plant-pathogen interactions
Spallek T, Melnyk CW, Wakatake T, Zhang J, Sakamoto Y, Kiba T, Yoshida S, Matsunaga S, Sakakibara H, Shirasu K (2017) Interspecies hormonal control of host root morphology by parasitic plants. PNAS
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1619078114
Charles Melnyk (Sainsbury Lab, Cambridge) is an author on this study led by Ken Shirasu at RIKEN and uses Arabidopsis to investigate the relationship between parasitic plants and their hosts, specifically at the level of interspecies transport via a structure called the haustorium. Haustoria are structures through which substances, such as RNA and proteins, reciprocally move between host and parasite. In this paper they look at the interaction between Arabidopsis roots and the hemiparasitic plant Phtheirospermum japonicum, demonstrating that movement of molecules between species occurs via haustoria once a vascular connection is made. Arabidopsis secondary root growth is induced under infection, a response that requires the effect of the hormone cytokinin. They look at the genetics of this interaction and show that cytokinin signaling genes are important in establishing root hypertrophy. Overall this study demonstrates the important of cytokinin during infection with parasitic plants and might be an important target to design strategies to combat these negative interactions in systems.
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