Light perception in aerial tissues enhances DWF4 accumulation in root tips and induces root growth

Abstract Many attempts have been made to characterize the activities of brassinosteroids (BRs), which are important plant hormones. The crosstalk between light perception and the BR signalling pathway has been extensively studied regarding its effects on photomorphogenesis, especially in elongating...

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Main Authors: Jun Sakaguchi, Yuichiro Watanabe
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Nature Publishing Group 2017-05-01
Series:Scientific Reports
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-01872-4
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spelling doaj-24c85da9d4f840e79ccdd8598ebdc3d62020-12-08T00:31:12ZengNature Publishing GroupScientific Reports2045-23222017-05-017111110.1038/s41598-017-01872-4Light perception in aerial tissues enhances DWF4 accumulation in root tips and induces root growthJun Sakaguchi0Yuichiro Watanabe1Department of Life Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo, KomabaDepartment of Life Sciences, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, University of Tokyo, KomabaAbstract Many attempts have been made to characterize the activities of brassinosteroids (BRs), which are important plant hormones. The crosstalk between light perception and the BR signalling pathway has been extensively studied regarding its effects on photomorphogenesis, especially in elongating etiolated hypocotyls. In contrast, how and where the light induces BR biosynthesis remain uncharacterized. DWF4 is one of the main enzymes involved in the BR biosynthesis pathway in Arabidopsis thaliana. We established DWF4-GUS A. thaliana lines in a homozygous dwf4-102 genetic background, but functionally complemented with a genomic DWF4 sequence fused in-frame with a β-glucuronidase (GUS) marker gene. The DWF4-GUS plants enabled the visualization of the accumulation of DWF4 under different conditions. We investigated the effects of aboveground light on root and hypocotyl growth. We observed that root length increased when shoots were maintained under light irrespective of whether roots were exposed to light. We also determined that light perception in aerial tissues enhanced DWF4 accumulation in the root tips. Overall, our data indicate that BR biosynthesis is promoted in the root tip regions by an unknown mechanism in distantly located shoot tissues exposed to light, leading to increased root growth.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-01872-4
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Jun Sakaguchi
Yuichiro Watanabe
spellingShingle Jun Sakaguchi
Yuichiro Watanabe
Light perception in aerial tissues enhances DWF4 accumulation in root tips and induces root growth
Scientific Reports
author_facet Jun Sakaguchi
Yuichiro Watanabe
author_sort Jun Sakaguchi
title Light perception in aerial tissues enhances DWF4 accumulation in root tips and induces root growth
title_short Light perception in aerial tissues enhances DWF4 accumulation in root tips and induces root growth
title_full Light perception in aerial tissues enhances DWF4 accumulation in root tips and induces root growth
title_fullStr Light perception in aerial tissues enhances DWF4 accumulation in root tips and induces root growth
title_full_unstemmed Light perception in aerial tissues enhances DWF4 accumulation in root tips and induces root growth
title_sort light perception in aerial tissues enhances dwf4 accumulation in root tips and induces root growth
publisher Nature Publishing Group
series Scientific Reports
issn 2045-2322
publishDate 2017-05-01
description Abstract Many attempts have been made to characterize the activities of brassinosteroids (BRs), which are important plant hormones. The crosstalk between light perception and the BR signalling pathway has been extensively studied regarding its effects on photomorphogenesis, especially in elongating etiolated hypocotyls. In contrast, how and where the light induces BR biosynthesis remain uncharacterized. DWF4 is one of the main enzymes involved in the BR biosynthesis pathway in Arabidopsis thaliana. We established DWF4-GUS A. thaliana lines in a homozygous dwf4-102 genetic background, but functionally complemented with a genomic DWF4 sequence fused in-frame with a β-glucuronidase (GUS) marker gene. The DWF4-GUS plants enabled the visualization of the accumulation of DWF4 under different conditions. We investigated the effects of aboveground light on root and hypocotyl growth. We observed that root length increased when shoots were maintained under light irrespective of whether roots were exposed to light. We also determined that light perception in aerial tissues enhanced DWF4 accumulation in the root tips. Overall, our data indicate that BR biosynthesis is promoted in the root tip regions by an unknown mechanism in distantly located shoot tissues exposed to light, leading to increased root growth.
url https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-01872-4
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AT yuichirowatanabe lightperceptioninaerialtissuesenhancesdwf4accumulationinroottipsandinducesrootgrowth
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