WRKY transcription factors and ethylene signaling modify root growth during the shade avoidance response

Rosado, Daniele, Ackermann, Amanda, Spassibojko, Olya, Rossi, Magdalena, Pedmale, Ullas V (October 2021) WRKY transcription factors and ethylene signaling modify root growth during the shade avoidance response. Plant Physiology. ISSN 1532-2548

URL: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34718759
DOI: 10.1093/plphys/kiab493

Abstract

Shade-intolerant plants rapidly elongate their stems, branches, and leaf stalks to compete with neighboring vegetation, maximizing sunlight capture for photosynthesis. This rapid growth adaptation, known as the shade avoidance response (SAR), comes at a cost: reduced biomass, crop yield, and root growth. Significant progress has been made on the mechanistic understanding of hypocotyl elongation during SAR; however, the molecular interpretation of root growth repression is not well understood. Here, we explore the mechanisms by which SAR induced by low red:far-red light restricts primary and lateral root (LR) growth. By analyzing the whole-genome transcriptome, we identified a core set of shade-induced genes in roots of Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) and tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) seedlings grown in the shade. Abiotic and biotic stressors also induce many of these shade-induced genes and are predominantly regulated by WRKY transcription factors. Correspondingly, a majority of WRKY genes were among the shade-induced genes. Functional analysis using transgenics of these shade-induced WRKYs revealed that their role is essentially to restrict primary root and LR growth in the shade; captivatingly, they did not affect hypocotyl elongation. Similarly, we also found that ethylene hormone signaling is necessary for limiting root growth in the shade. We propose that during SAR, shade-induced WRKY26, 45, and 75, and ethylene reprogram gene expression in the root to restrict its growth and development.

Item Type: Paper
Subjects: organism description > plant > Arabidopsis
bioinformatics
bioinformatics > genomics and proteomics > genetics & nucleic acid processing
bioinformatics > genomics and proteomics
bioinformatics > genomics and proteomics > genetics & nucleic acid processing > protein structure, function, modification
bioinformatics > genomics and proteomics > genetics & nucleic acid processing > protein structure, function, modification > protein types
organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > tissues types and functions > root
organism description > plant > tomato
bioinformatics > genomics and proteomics > genetics & nucleic acid processing > protein structure, function, modification > protein types > transcription factor
bioinformatics > genomics and proteomics > genetics & nucleic acid processing > transcriptomes
CSHL Authors:
Communities: CSHL labs > Pedmale lab
School of Biological Sciences > Publications
SWORD Depositor: CSHL Elements
Depositing User: CSHL Elements
Date: 27 October 2021
Date Deposited: 03 Nov 2021 14:59
Last Modified: 25 Jan 2024 16:25
PMCID: PMC8825332
URI: https://repository.cshl.edu/id/eprint/40406

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