Abstract
Land plants reproduce sexually by developing an embryo from a fertilized egg cell. However, embryos can also be formed from other cell types in many plant species. Thus, a key question is how embryo identity in plants is controlled, and how this process is modified during nonzygotic embryogenesis. The Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) zygote divides to produce an embryonic lineage and an extra-embryonic suspensor. Yet, normally quiescent suspensor cells can develop a second embryo when the initial embryo is damaged, or when response to the signaling molecule auxin is locally blocked. Here we used auxindependent suspensor embryogenesis as a model to determine transcriptome changes during embryonic reprogramming. We found that reprogramming is complex and accompanied by large transcriptomic changes before anatomical changes. This analysis revealed a strong enrichment for genes encoding components of auxin homeostasis and response among misregulated genes. Strikingly, deregulation among multiple auxin-related gene families converged upon the reestablishment of cellular auxin levels or response. This finding points to a remarkable degree of feedback regulation to create resilience in the auxin response during embryo development. Starting from the transcriptome of auxin-deregulated embryos, we identified an auxin-dependent basic Helix Loop Helix transcription factor network that mediates the activity of this hormone in suppressing embryo development from the suspensor.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 52-67 |
| Number of pages | 16 |
| Journal | Plant Cell |
| Volume | 31 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jan 2019 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:The authors thank Dr. Jim Haseloff and the Nottingham Arabidopsis Stock Center for distributing the seeds and Bert De Rybel and Maritza van Dop for comments on the manuscript. This work was funded by grants from the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research) (ALW-NSFC grant 846.11.001; ALW Open Competition grant 816.02.014) and the European Union ITN network SIREN (contract no.214788 to D.W.).
Publisher Copyright:
© ASPB.
Funding
The authors thank Dr. Jim Haseloff and the Nottingham Arabidopsis Stock Center for distributing the seeds and Bert De Rybel and Maritza van Dop for comments on the manuscript. This work was funded by grants from the Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research) (ALW-NSFC grant 846.11.001; ALW Open Competition grant 816.02.014) and the European Union ITN network SIREN (contract no.214788 to D.W.).