Journal Article

Repression of early lateral root initiation events by transient water deficit in barley and maize

Babé, Aurélie, Lavigne, Tristan, Chaumont, François, Batoko, Henri, Draye, Xavier, Séverin, Jean-Philippe, Walter, Achim, Nagel, Kerstin A., Beeckman, Tom

2012

Overview

The formation of lateral roots (LRs) is a key driver of root system architecture and developmental plasticity. The first stage of LR formation, which leads to the acquisition of founder cell identity in the pericycle, is the primary determinant of root branching patterns. The fact that initiation events occur asynchronously in a very small number of cells inside the parent root has been a major difficulty in the study of the molecular regulation of branching patterns. Inducible systems that trigger synchronous lateral formation at predictable sites have proven extremely valuable in Arabidopsis to decipher the first steps of LR formation. Here, we present a LR repression system for cereals that relies on a transient water-deficit treatment, which blocks LR initiation before the first formative divisions. Using a time-lapse approach, we analysed the dynamics of this repression along growing roots and were able to show that it targets a very narrow developmental window of the initiation process. Interestingly, the repression can be exploited to obtain negative control root samples where LR initiation is absent. This system could be instrumental in the analysis of the molecular basis of drought-responsive as well as intrinsic pathways of LR formation in cereals.

• Publisher: The Royal Society
• Subject: Auxins / Barley / Biological Transport / Cell Division / Corn / Droughts / Hordeum - drug effects / Hordeum - growth & development / Hordeum - metabolism / Indoleacetic Acids - metabolism / Indoleacetic Acids - pharmacology / Lateral Root Initiation / Maize / Osmotic Pressure / Plant cells / Plant Cells - metabolism / Plant roots / Plant Roots - drug effects / Plant Roots - growth & development / Plant Roots - metabolism / Plants / Repression / Root growth / Root initiation / Seminal roots / Signal Transduction / Time Factors / Water - metabolism / Water Deficit / Zea mays - drug effects / Zea mays - growth & development / Zea mays - metabolism