BackgroundAdventitious root (AR) formation is a critical step in vegetative propagation of most ornamental plants, such as carnation. AR formation from stem cuttings is usually divided into several stages according to physiological and metabolic markers. Auxin is often applied exogenously to promote the development of ARs on stem cuttings of difficult-to-root genotypes.ResultsBy whole transcriptome sequencing, we identified the genes involved in AR formation in carnation cuttings and in response to exogenous auxin. Their expression profiles have been analysed through RNA-Seq during a time-course experiment in the stem cutting base of two cultivars with contrasting efficiencies of AR formation. We explored the kinetics of root primordia formation in these two cultivars and in response to exogenously-applied auxin through detailed histological and physiological analyses.ConclusionsOur results provide, for the first time, a number of molecular, histological and physiological markers that characterize the different stages of AR formation in this species and that could be used to monitor adventitious rooting on a wide collection of carnation germplasm with the aim to identify the best-rooting cultivars for breeding purposes.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12864-015-2003-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Adventitious roots (ARs) are produced from non-root tissues in response to different environmental signals, such as abiotic stresses, or after wounding, in a complex developmental process that requires hormonal crosstalk. Here, we characterized AR formation in young seedlings of Solanum lycopersicum cv. 'Micro-Tom' after whole root excision by means of physiological, genetic and molecular approaches. We found that a regulated basipetal auxin transport from the shoot and local auxin biosynthesis triggered by wounding are both required for the re-establishment of internal auxin gradients within the vasculature. This promotes cell proliferation at the distal cambium near the wound in well-defined positions of the basal hypocotyl and during a narrow developmental window. In addition, a pre-established pattern of differential auxin responses along the apical-basal axis of the hypocotyl and an as of yet unknown cellautonomous inhibitory pathway contribute to the temporal and spatial patterning of the newly formed ARs on isolated hypocotyl explants. Our work provides an experimental outline for the dissection of wound-induced AR formation in tomato, a species that is suitable for molecular identification of gene regulatory networks via forward and reverse genetics approaches.

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N-α-terminal acetylation is one of the most common, but least understood modifications of eukaryotic proteins. Although a high degree of conservation exists between the N-α-terminal acetylomes of plants and animals, very little information is available on this modification in plants. In yeast and humans, N-α-acetyltransferase complexes include a single catalytic subunit and one or two auxiliary subunits. Here, we report the positional cloning of TRANSCURVATA2 (TCU2), which encodes the auxiliary subunit of the NatB N-α-acetyltransferase complex in Arabidopsis. The phenotypes of loss-of-function tcu2 alleles indicate that NatB complex activity is required for flowering time regulation and for leaf, inflorescence, flower, fruit and embryonic development. In double mutants, tcu2 alleles synergistically interact with alleles of ARGONAUTE10, which encodes a component of the microRNA machinery. In summary, NatB-mediated N-α-terminal acetylation of proteins is pleiotropically required for Arabidopsis development and seems to be functionally related to the microRNA pathway.

Ribosome biogenesis requires stoichiometric amounts of ribosomal proteins and rRNAs. Synthesis of rRNAs consumes most of the transcriptional activity of eukaryotic cells, but its regulation remains largely unclear in plants. We conducted a screen for ethyl methanesulfonate-induced suppressors of Arabidopsis thaliana ago1-52, a hypomorphic allele of AGO1 (ARGONAUTE1), a key gene in microRNA pathways. We identified nine extragenic suppressors as alleles of MAS2 (MORPHOLOGY OF AGO1-52 SUPPRESSED2). Positional cloning showed that MAS2 encodes the putative ortholog of NKAP (NF-k B activating protein), a conserved eukaryotic protein involved in transcriptional repression and splicing in animals. The mas2 point mutations behave as informational suppressors of ago1 alleles that cause missplicing. MAS2 is a single-copy gene whose insertional alleles are embryonic lethal. In yeast two-hybrid assays, MAS2 interacted with splicing and ribosome biogenesis proteins, and fluorescence in situ hybridization showed that MAS2 colocalizes with the 45S rDNA at the nucleolar organizer regions (NORs). The artificial microRNA amiR-MAS2 partially repressed MAS2 and caused hypomethylation of 45S rDNA promoters as well as partial NOR decondensation, indicating that MAS2 negatively regulates 45S rDNA expression. Our results thus reveal a key player in the regulation of rRNA synthesis in plants.