The conquest of land by plants was concomitant with, and possibly enabled by, the evolution of three‐dimensional (3D) growth. The moss We report ethylene controls 3D gametophore formation, based on results from exogenously applied ethylene and genetic manipulation of Overexpression (OE) of Our results suggest that evolutionarily, ethylene and auxin molecular networks were recruited to build the plant body plan in ancestral land plants. This might have played a role in enabling ancient plants to acclimate to the continental surfaces of the planet.
Crosstalk between auxin and cytokinin contributes to widespread developmental processes, including root and shoot meristem maintenance, phyllotaxy, and vascular patterning. However, our understanding of crosstalk between these hormones is limited primarily to angiosperms. The moss Physcomitrium patens (formerly Physcomitrella patens) is a powerful system for studying plant hormone function. Auxin and cytokinin play similar roles in regulating moss gametophore (shoot) architecture, to those in flowering plant shoots. However, auxin–cytokinin crosstalk is poorly understood in moss. Here we find that the ratio of auxin to cytokinin is an important determinant of development in P. patens, especially during leaf development and branch stem cell initiation. Addition of high levels of auxin to P. patens gametophores blocks leaf outgrowth. However, simultaneous addition of high levels of both auxin and cytokinin partially restores leaf outgrowth, suggesting that the ratio of these hormones is the predominant factor. Likewise, during branch initiation and outgrowth, chemical inhibition of auxin synthesis phenocopies cytokinin application. Finally, cytokinin-insensitive mutants resemble plants with altered auxin signaling and are hypersensitive to auxin. In summary, our results suggest that the ratio between auxin and cytokinin signaling is the basis for developmental decisions in the moss gametophore.
more » « less- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10475113
- Publisher / Repository:
- Oxford University Press
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Experimental Botany
- Volume:
- 74
- Issue:
- 21
- ISSN:
- 0022-0957
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: p. 6541-6550
- Size(s):
- ["p. 6541-6550"]
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
more » « less
Summary Physcomitrium patens provides a model system for elucidating molecular mechanisms in the initiation of 3D growth. Here, we investigate whether the phytohormone ethylene, which is believed to have been a signal before land plant emergence, plays a role in 3D growth regulation inP. patens .PpEIN2 , which is a central component in the ethylene signaling pathway.PpEIN2 activates ethylene responses and leads to earlier formation of gametophores with fewer gametophores produced thereafter, phenocopying ethylene‐treated wild‐type. Conversely,Ppein2 knockout mutants, which are ethylene insensitive, show initially delayed gametophore formation with more gametophores produced later. Furthermore, pharmacological and biochemical analyses reveal auxin levels are decreased in the OE lines but increased in the knockout mutants. -
Plant shoots grow from stem cells within shoot apical meristems (SAMs), which produce lateral organs while maintaining the stem cell pool. In the model flowering plant Arabidopsis , the CLAVATA (CLV) pathway functions antagonistically with cytokinin signaling to control the size of the multicellular SAM via negative regulation of the stem cell organizer WUSCHEL (WUS). Although comprising just a single cell, the SAM of the model moss Physcomitrium patens (formerly Physcomitrella patens ) performs equivalent functions during stem cell maintenance and organogenesis, despite the absence of WUS-mediated stem cell organization. Our previous work showed that the stem cell–delimiting function of the receptors CLAVATA1 (CLV1) and RECEPTOR-LIKE PROTEIN KINASE2 (RPK2) is conserved in the moss P. patens . Here, we use P. patens to assess whether CLV–cytokinin cross-talk is also an evolutionarily conserved feature of stem cell regulation. Application of cytokinin produces ectopic stem cell phenotypes similar to Ppclv1a , Ppclv1b , and Pprpk2 mutants. Surprisingly, cytokinin receptor mutants also form ectopic stem cells in the absence of cytokinin signaling. Through modeling, we identified regulatory network architectures that recapitulated the stem cell phenotypes of Ppclv1a , Ppclv1b , and Pprpk2 mutants, cytokinin application, cytokinin receptor mutations, and higher-order combinations of these perturbations. These models predict that Pp CLV1 and Pp RPK2 act through separate pathways wherein Pp CLV1 represses cytokinin-mediated stem cell initiation, and Pp RPK2 inhibits this process via a separate, cytokinin-independent pathway. Our analysis suggests that cross-talk between CLV1 and cytokinin signaling is an evolutionarily conserved feature of SAM homeostasis that preceded the role of WUS in stem cell organization.more » « less
-
more » « less
Abstract The hormones auxin and cytokinin are essential for plant growth and development. Because of the central importance of root and shoot apical meristems in plant growth, auxin/cytokinin interactions have been predominantly analyzed in relation to apical meristem formation and function. In contrast, the auxin/cytokinin interactions during organ growth have remained largely unexplored. Here, we show that a specific interaction between auxin and cytokinin operates in both the root and the shoot where it serves as an additional determinant of plant development. We found that auxin at low concentrations limits the action of cytokinin. An increase in cytokinin level counteracts this inhibitory effect and leads to an inhibition of auxin signaling. At higher concentrations of both hormones, these antagonistic interactions between cytokinin and auxin are absent. Thus, our results reveal a bidirectional and asymmetrical interaction of auxin and cytokinin beyond the bounds of apical meristems. The relation is bidirectional in that both hormones exert inhibitory effects on each other's signaling mechanisms. However, this relation is also asymmetrical because under controlled growth conditions, auxin present in nontreated plants suppresses cytokinin signaling, whereas the reverse is not the case.
-
more » « less
Summary In species with compound leaves, the positions of leaflet primordium initiation are associated with local peaks of auxin accumulation. However, the role of auxin during the late developmental stages and outgrowth of compound leaves remains largely unknown.
Using genome resequencing approaches, we identified insertion sites at four alleles of the
LATERAL LEAFLET SUPPRESSION1 (LLS1 ) gene, encoding the auxin biosynthetic enzyme YUCCA1 inMedicago truncatula .Linkage analysis and complementation tests showed that the
lls1 mutant phenotypes were caused by theTnt1 insertions that disrupted theLLS1 gene. The transcripts ofLLS1 can be detected in primordia at early stages of leaf initiation and later in the basal regions of leaflets, and finally in vein tissues at late leaf developmental stages. Vein numbers and auxin content are reduced in thells1‐1 mutant. Analysis of thells1 sgl1 andlls1 palm1 double mutants revealed thatSGL1 is epistatic toLLS1 , andLLS1 works withPALM1 in an independent pathway to regulate the growth of lateral leaflets.Our work demonstrates that the YUCCA1/YUCCA4 subgroup plays very important roles in the outgrowth of lateral leaflets during compound leaf development of
M. truncatula , in addition to leaf venation. -
ABSTRACT A complete picture of how signaling pathways lead to multicellularity is largely unknown. Previously, we generated mutations in a protein prenylation enzyme, GGB, and showed that it is essential for maintaining multicellularity in the moss Physcomitrium patens. Here, we show that ROP GTPases act as downstream factors that are prenylated by GGB and themselves play an important role in the multicellularity of P. patens. We also show that the loss of multicellularity caused by the suppression of GGB or ROP GTPases is due to uncoordinated cell expansion, defects in cell wall integrity and the disturbance of the directional control of cell plate orientation. Expressing prenylatable ROP in the ggb mutant not only rescues multicellularity in protonemata but also results in development of gametophores. Although the prenylation of ROP is important for multicellularity, a higher threshold of active ROP is required for gametophore development. Thus, our results suggest that ROP activation via prenylation by GGB is a key process at both cell and tissue levels, facilitating the developmental transition from one dimension to two dimensions and to three dimensions in P. patens.more » « less
