Specification of female germline by microRNA orchestrated auxin signaling in Arabidopsis.
Jian HuangLei ZhaoShikha MalikBenjamin R GentileVa XiongTzahi AraziHeather A OwenJiří FrimlDazhong ZhaoPublished in: Nature communications (2022)
Germline determination is essential for species survival and evolution in multicellular organisms. In most flowering plants, formation of the female germline is initiated with specification of one megaspore mother cell (MMC) in each ovule; however, the molecular mechanism underlying this key event remains unclear. Here we report that spatially restricted auxin signaling promotes MMC fate in Arabidopsis. Our results show that the microRNA160 (miR160) targeted gene ARF17 (AUXIN RESPONSE FACTOR17) is required for promoting MMC specification by genetically interacting with the SPL/NZZ (SPOROCYTELESS/NOZZLE) gene. Alterations of auxin signaling cause formation of supernumerary MMCs in an ARF17- and SPL/NZZ-dependent manner. Furthermore, miR160 and ARF17 are indispensable for attaining a normal auxin maximum at the ovule apex via modulating the expression domain of PIN1 (PIN-FORMED1) auxin transporter. Our findings elucidate the mechanism by which auxin signaling promotes the acquisition of female germline cell fate in plants.
Keyphrases
- arabidopsis thaliana
- cell fate
- dna repair
- cell proliferation
- long non coding rna
- transcription factor
- poor prognosis
- copy number
- genome wide
- stem cells
- signaling pathway
- cell therapy
- bone marrow
- oxidative stress
- genome wide identification
- dna methylation
- binding protein
- gene expression
- gram negative
- solid phase extraction
- tandem mass spectrometry