AP2/ERF Transcription Factors Integrate Age and Wound Signals for Root Regeneration

Abstract

Age and wounding are two major determinants for regeneration. In plants, the root regeneration is triggered by woundinduced auxin biosynthesis. As plants age, the root regenerative capacity gradually decreases. How wounding leads to the auxin burst and how age and wound signals collaboratively regulate root regenerative capacity are poorly understood. Here, we show that the increased levels of three closely-related miR156-targeted Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) SQUAMOSA PROMOTER BINDING PROTEIN-LIKE (SPL) transcription factors, SPL2, SPL10, and SPL11, suppress root regeneration with age by inhibiting wound-induced auxin biosynthesis. Mechanistically, we find that a subset of APETALA2/ETHYLENE RESPONSE FACTOR (AP2/ERF) transcription factors including ABSCISIC ACID REPRESSOR1 and ERF109 is rapidly induced by wounding and serves as a proxy for wound signal to induce auxin biosynthesis. In older plants, SPL2/10/11 directly bind to the promoters of AP2/ERFs and attenuates their induction, thereby dampening auxin accumulation at the wound. Our results thus identify AP2/ERFs as a hub for integration of age and wound signal for root regeneration.

Genome-Wide Analysis of the Shi-Related Sequence Family and Functional Identification of GmSRS18 Involving in Drought and Salt Stresses in Soybean

“…GmSRS18, as a transcription factor, was located in the cell nucleus, which showed that it functions in cell nucleus. Transcription factors were involved in the abiotic and biotic stress response in many plants [67][68][69][70][71][72]. Though there are few reports of SRS family about the abiotic stress response thus far, we demonstrated that GmSRS18 can increase the transgenic Arabidopsis sensitivity to drought and salt stresses.…”

Integration of Jasmonic Acid and Ethylene Into Auxin Signaling in Root Development

“…Jasmonates are well-known lipid-derived compounds as key regulators in plant growth and development as well as in plant stress responses. JA participates in the regulation of root growth, seedling development, flower development, root regeneration, seed development, seed germination, tuber formation and senescence (Wasternack and Hause, 2013;Ye et al, 2019;Zhang G. et al, 2019). JA regulates root growth in many aspects, including inhibition of primary root (Chen et al, 2011), promoting lateral roots formation (Cai et al, 2014), negatively regulating adventitious roots (Gutierrez et al, 2012;Lakehal et al, 2019), and inducing root regeneration (Ye et al, 2019;Zhang G. et al, 2019).…”

“…Thus, ERF109 serves as an important crosstalk node between JA and auxin signaling (Figure 2). Recently, three research groups independently reported that ERF109 has a novel function in plant regeneration depending on its roles in upregulating ASA1 expression (Ye et al, 2019;Zhang G. et al, 2019) or activating ERF115 and CYCD6;1 (Zhou et al, 2019). ERF1, ERF109, and HB52 are representative TFs involved in the crosstalk of JA-auxin and ethylene-auxin signaling pathways in regulating root development.…”

“…In addition, numerous studies have shown that ethylene is involved in various plant growth and developmental processes, including root growth (Ruzicka et al, 2007;Swarup et al, 2007;Lewis et al, 2011;Street et al, 2015;Mao et al, 2016;Miao et al, 2018). The function of jasmonic acid (JA) in plant injury and defense responses has been thoroughly studied, and its roles in growth and development has also been widely reported (Kazan and Manners, 2013;Cai et al, 2014;Ye et al, 2019). Like other hormone signaling pathways, ethylene and JA signaling are integrated into auxin in root development, largely through TFs acting as the key crosstalk nodes.…”

Understanding of Adventitious Root Formation: What Can We Learn From Comparative Genetics?

“…A role for miR156 in AR formation has been proposed based on the reduced number of wound-induced ARs of plants transformed with 35S::MIM156 , which blocks the activity of miR156 and causes an increase in SPL expression, providing a plausible explanation for the observation that rooting capacity declines along with plant age ( Xu M. et al, 2016 ; Massoumi et al, 2017 ). Recent data indicated a more complex scenario for SPL regulation during wound-induced AR formation ( Ye et al, 2020 ). Here, the authors used the Arabidopsis leaf explant experimental system to provide a mechanistic model for de novo AR formation where the wound signal activates a subset of AP2/ERF transcription factors that induce auxin biosynthesis, such as ABR1, ERF109, ERF115, and RAP2.6L, among others.…”