Cultivating potential: Harnessing plant stem cells for agricultural crop improvement

Lindsay, Penelope; Swentowsky, Kyle W.; Jackson, David

doi:10.1016/j.molp.2023.12.014

Cited by 4 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 319 publications

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“…Maize stem cell activity is highly associated with ear yield traits (Lindsay et al, 2024). To test if our newly identified stem cell markers (Table S2) and genes differentially expressed in proliferating stem cells (Table S4) contribute to ear yield traits (Xu et al, 2021), we estimated the narrow-sense heritability ( h 2 ) of eight ear traits (Xu et al, 2021) and compared them to random distributions of h 2 generated from random gene subsets (Figure 5 A-D).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Stem cells in shoot apical meristems shape plant architecture and produce fruits and seeds, which are crucial for food and carbon neutral biofuel production (Greb and Lohmann, 2016; Lindsay et al, 2024). Understanding the control of these stem cells, including their maintenance and proliferation, requires the identification and functional characterization of master stem cell regulators within complex regulatory networks.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Understanding the control of these stem cells, including their maintenance and proliferation, requires the identification and functional characterization of master stem cell regulators within complex regulatory networks. Genetics and bulk gene expression approaches have identified and localized some of these regulators (Kitagawa and Jackson, 2019; Lindsay et al, 2024). This has led to the identification of specific cell types and domains, including the central zone which harbors stem cells, the organizing center which specifies the stem cells, and the peripheral zone which initiates lateral organ primordia (Fuchs and Lohmann, 2020; Hong and Fletcher, 2023; Karami et al, 2023; Uchida and Torii, 2019; Wang et al, 2020; Zhang et al, 2023).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In arabidopsis, CLV3 is expressed in stem cells to restrict the expression of WUS to the organizing center, and WUS protein moves from the organizing center to stem cells to activate CLV3 expression (Daum et al, 2014; Yadav et al, 2011). The identification of shoot stem cell regulators is critical to understanding the mechanisms of stem cell self-renewal, proliferation, and differentiation, and they can be manipulated by genome editing to bolster crop yield (Lindsay et al, 2024; L. Liu et al, 2021b; Rodríguez-Leal et al, 2017; Rodriguez-Leal et al, 2019; Wang et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Large-scale single-cell profiling of stem cells uncovers redundant regulators of shoot development and yield trait variation

Xu,

Passalacqua,

Rice

et al. 2024

Preprint

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SUMMARYStem cells in plant shoots are a rare population of cells that produce leaves, fruits and seeds, vital sources for food and bioethanol. Uncovering regulators expressed in these stem cells will inform crop engineering to boost productivity. Single-cell analysis is a powerful tool for identifying regulators expressed in specific groups of cells. However, accessing plant shoot stem cells is challenging. Recent single-cell analyses of plant shoots have not captured these cells, and failed to detect stem cell regulators likeCLAVATA3andWUSCHEL. In this study, we finely dissected stem cell-enriched shoot tissues from both maize and arabidopsis for single-cell RNA-seq profiling. We optimized protocols to efficiently recover thousands ofCLAVATA3andWUSCHELexpressed cells. A cross-species comparison identified conserved stem cell regulators between maize and arabidopsis. We also performed single-cell RNA-seq on maize stem cell overproliferation mutants to find additional candidate regulators. Expression of candidate stem cell genes was validated using spatial transcriptomics, and we functionally confirmed roles in shoot development. These candidates include a family of ribosome-associated RNA-binding proteins, and two families of sugar kinase genes related to hypoxia signaling and cytokinin hormone homeostasis. These large-scale single-cell profiling of stem cells provide a resource for mining stem cell regulators, which show significant association with yield traits. Overall, our discoveries advance the understanding of shoot development and open avenues for manipulating diverse crops to enhance food and energy security.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Large-scale single-cell profiling of stem cells uncovers redundant regulators of shoot development and yield trait variation

Xu,

Passalacqua,

Rice

et al. 2024

Preprint

Self Cite

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“…Our results lead to many hypotheses on how the evolutionary conservation happens for other LRR-RLKs and receptor proteins in diverse developmental and physiological contexts [ 12–14 ]. Furthermore, this work provides not only evolutionary and biological insights into genetic robustness and compensation involving plant stem cell homeostasis but also a milestone of a species-specific approach to crop improvement [ 42 ].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evolutionary conservation of receptor compensation for stem cell homeostasis in Solanaceae plants

Seo,

Lim,

Hendelman

et al. 2024

Horticulture Research

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Stem cell homeostasis is pivotal for continuous and programmed formation of organs in plants. The precise control of meristem proliferation is mediated by the evolutionarily conserved signaling that encompasses complex interactions among multiple peptide ligands and their receptor-like kinases. Here, we identified compensation mechanisms involving the CLAVATA1 (CLV1) receptor and its paralogs, BARELY ANY MERISTEMs (BAMs), for stem cell proliferation in two Solanaceae species, tomato, and groundcherry. Genetic analyses of higher-order mutants deficient in multiple receptor genes, generated via CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing, reveal that tomato SlBAM1 and SlBAM2 compensate for slclv1 mutations. Unlike the compensatory responses between orthologous receptors observed in Arabidopsis, tomato slclv1 mutations do not trigger transcriptional upregulation of four SlBAM genes. The compensation mechanisms within receptors are also conserved in groundcherry, and critical amino acid residues of the receptors associated with the physical interaction with peptide ligands are highly conserved in Solanaceae plants. Our findings demonstrate that the evolutionary conservation of both compensation mechanisms and critical coding sequences between receptor-like kinases provides a strong buffering capacity during stem cell homeostasis in tomato and groundcherry.

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A bushel of WUSCHEL is too much: Uncovering the role of cytokinin cis-regulatory elements in the maize WUSCHEL promoter

Swentowsky

2024

Plant Physiology

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Cultivating potential: Harnessing plant stem cells for agricultural crop improvement

Cited by 4 publications

References 319 publications

Large-scale single-cell profiling of stem cells uncovers redundant regulators of shoot development and yield trait variation

Large-scale single-cell profiling of stem cells uncovers redundant regulators of shoot development and yield trait variation

Evolutionary conservation of receptor compensation for stem cell homeostasis in Solanaceae plants

A bushel of WUSCHEL is too much: Uncovering the role of cytokinin cis-regulatory elements in the maize WUSCHEL promoter

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