Plants transition through juvenile and adult phases of vegetative development in a process known as vegetative phase change (VPC). In poplars (genus We examined developmental morphology of seed‐grown and In seed‐grown plants, most traits changed from node‐to‐node during the first 3 months of development but remained constant after node 25. Many traits remained unchanged in clones over‐expressing miR156, or were enhanced when miR156 was lowered, demonstrating their natural progression is regulated by the miR156/SPL pathway. The characteristic leaf fluttering of Vegetative development in plants grown from culture mirrored that of seed‐grown plants, allowing direct comparison between plants often used in research and those found in nature. These results provide a foundation for further research on the role of VPC in the ecology and evolution of this economically important genus.
The juvenile‐to‐adult vegetative phase change in flowering plants is mediated by a decrease in miR156 levels. Downregulation of Here, we show that histone deacetylase 9 (HDA9) is recruited to H2Aub and H3K27me3 become enriched at Our results suggest that PKL associates with histone deacetylases to erase H3K27ac and promote PRC1 and PRC2 activities to mediate vegetative phase change and maintain plants in the adult phase after the phase transition.
- Award ID(s):
- 1947274
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10374788
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley-Blackwell
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- New Phytologist
- Volume:
- 235
- Issue:
- 3
- ISSN:
- 0028-646X
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- p. 1070-1081
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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null (Ed.)Vegetative leaves in Arabidopsis are classified as either juvenile leaves or adult leaves based on their specific traits, such as leaf shape and the presence of abaxial trichomes. The timing of the juvenile-to-adult phase transition during vegetative development, called the vegetative phase change, is a critical decision for plants, as this transition is associated with crop yield, stress responses, and immune responses. Juvenile leaves are characterized by high levels of miR156/157, and adult leaves are characterized by high levels of miR156/157 targets, SQUAMOSA PROMOTER BINDING PROTEIN-LIKE (SPL) transcription factors. The discovery of this miR156/157-SPL module provided a critical tool for elucidating the complex regulation of the juvenile-to-adult phase transition in plants. In this review, we discuss how the traits of juvenile leaves and adult leaves are determined by the miR156/157-SPL module and how different factors, including embryonic regulators, sugar, meristem regulators, hormones, and epigenetic proteins are involved in controlling the juvenile-to-adult phase transition, focusing on recent insights into vegetative phase change. We also highlight outstanding questions in the field that need further investigation. Understanding how vegetative phase change is regulated would provide a basis for manipulating agricultural traits under various conditions.more » « less
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Summary Phenotypic plasticity allows organisms to optimize traits for their environment. As organisms age, they experience diverse environments that benefit from varying degrees of phenotypic plasticity. Developmental transitions can control these age‐dependent changes in plasticity, and as such, the timing of these transitions can determine when plasticity changes in an organism.
Here, we investigate how the transition from juvenile‐to adult‐vegetative development known as vegetative phase change (VPC) contributes to age‐dependent changes in phenotypic plasticity and how the timing of this transition responds to environment using both natural accessions and mutant lines in the model plant
Arabidopsis thaliana .We found that the adult phase of vegetative development has greater plasticity in leaf morphology than the juvenile phase and confirmed that this difference in plasticity is caused by VPC using mutant lines. Furthermore, we found that the timing of VPC, and therefore the time when increased plasticity is acquired, varies significantly across genotypes and environments.
The consistent age‐dependent changes in plasticity caused by VPC suggest that VPC may be adaptive. This genetic and environmental variation in the timing of VPC indicates the potential for population‐level adaptive evolution of VPC.
