CUTIN SYNTHASE 2 Maintains Progressively Developing Cuticular Ridges in Arabidopsis Sepals

Abstract

The cuticle is a crucial barrier on the aerial surfaces of land plants. In many plants, including Arabidopsis, the sepals and petals form distinctive nanoridges in their cuticles. However, little is known about how the formation and maintenance of these nanostructures is coordinated with the growth and development of the underlying cells. Here we report the characterization of the Arabidopsis cutin synthase 2 (cus2) mutant, which causes a great reduction in cuticular ridges on the mature sepal epidermis, but only a moderate effect on petal cone cell ridges. Using scanning electron microscopy and confocal live imaging combined with quantification of cellular growth, we find that cuticular ridge formation progresses down the sepal from tip to base as the sepal grows. pCUS2::GFP-GUS reporter expression coincides with cuticular ridge formation, descending the sepal from tip to base. Ridge formation also coincides with the reduction in growth rate and termination of cell division of the underlying epidermal cells. Surprisingly, cuticular ridges at first form normally in the cus2 mutant, but are lost progressively at later stages of sepal development, indicating that CUS2 is crucial for the maintenance of cuticular ridges after they are formed. Our results reveal the dynamics of both ridge formation and maintenance as the sepal grows.

Cellulose‐Based Biomimetics and Their Applications

“…Indeed, such striations or wrinkles can either be parallel or perpendicular to the long axis of the epithelial cells. This variation in the orientation of the wrinkles can be found within the same plant and for different plants; for instance, the orientations of the wrinkles in H. trionum (Figure a–c) and Kalanchoe blossfeldiana (Figure o–r)[23d] were found to be parallel and those of Yunnan rhododendron (Figure g,h), Ursinia calendulifolia (Figure i,j) and daisy (Figure k–n)[23d] were found to be perpendicular to the long axis of the cells.…”

Comparative transcriptome profiling of different tissues from beta-carotene-enhanced transgenic soybean and its non-transgenic counterpart

“…Among them, four up-regulated DEGs, which were validated using qRT-PCR, were functionally categorized into cutin synthase-encoding genes, including LOC100800835 (GDSL esterase/lipase At4g28780), LOC100791595 (GDSL esterase/lipase At4g28780-like), LOC100780781 (GDSL esterase/lipase At5g33370), and 1 3 LOC100819292 (GDSL esterase/lipase LTL1). Several studies have shown these to encode GDSL family proteins and to localize to the developing cuticle, affecting cutin deposition (Girard et al 2012;Yeats et al 2012;Bakan and Marion 2017;Hong et al 2017). Two other up-regulated DEGs, LOC100812614 and LOC100819691, were annotated as GDSL esterase/lipase At5g45950-like, which confirmed the increase in the expression of beta-carotene-enhanced transgenic soybean stems.…”

Spatiotemporal development of cuticular ridges on leaf surfaces ofHevea brasiliensisalters insect attachment

“…From this comparison, the leaves from stages A to B contained Rapid changes in the cuticular morphology on the adaxial leaf surfaces of H. brasiliensis during the transition stages occurs directionally with ridges progressing acropetally from base to apex from stages S1 to S3. Such ontogenetic development of ridges has also been observed on Arabidopsis thaliana sepals [47] on which the progression of the ridges takes place basipetally from the tip to base and is correlated with the reduced growth rate and termination of the cell division of the underlying epidermal cells [47]. This also seems a probable cause in case of H. brasiliensis leaves.…”