Intercellular Communication during Plant Development

Abstract

Multicellular organisms depend on cell-to-cell communication to coordinate both development and environmental responses across diverse cell types. Intercellular signaling is particularly critical in plants because development is primarily postembryonic and continuous over a plant's life span. Additionally, development is impacted by restrictions imposed by a sessile lifestyle and limitations on relative cell positions. Many non-cell-autonomous signaling mechanisms are known to function in plant development, including those involving receptor kinases, small peptides, and mobile transcription factors. In this review, we focus on recent findings that highlight novel mechanisms in intercellular signaling during development. New details of small RNA movement, including microRNA movement, are discussed, as well as protein movement and distribution of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in ROS signaling. Finally, a novel temporal mechanism for lateral root positioning and the implications for intercellular signaling are considered.

Small Signaling Peptides in Arabidopsis Development: How Cells Communicate Over a Short Distance

“…There are several ways to achieve this in plants, including phytohormones, mobile transcription factors, noncoding RNAs, and small signaling peptides (Busch and Benfey, 2010;Van Norman et al, 2011). Most prominently, directional transport of the phytohormone auxin from one cell to the other provides cues for patterning and development (Vanneste and Friml, 2009;Grunewald and Friml, 2010).…”

Cell-Fate Specification in Arabidopsis Roots Requires Coordinative Action of Lineage Instruction and Positional Reprogramming

“…SHORT-ROOT (SHR) was identified as a key regulator of root radial patterning by directing the ground tissue formation (Helariutta et al, 2000;Nakajima et al, 2001). Both cortical and endodermal cell layers in ground tissue derive from the same cortex/endodermal initial (CEI) cells in the stem cell niche (Petricka et al, 2012;Van Norman et al, 2011;Petricka and Benfey, 2008). In the CEI and CEI daughter cells (CEID), SHR activates SCARECROW (SCR), and together both SHR and SCR turn on the expression of CYCLIN D6;1 (CYCD6;1), leading to the periclinal division in CEID and separating the endodermis and cortex (Sozzani et al, 2010;Cruz-Ramírez et al, 2012;Supplemental Fig.…”

Intercellular communication in Arabidopsis thaliana pollen discovered via AHG3 transcript movement from the vegetative cell to sperm

“…Intercellular communication plays an important role in the regulation of plant development (4). Plasmodesmata, microscopic channels that traverse the cell walls of most plant cells, are usually the conduit for intercellular transport in plants (5).…”