日本語

National Institutes of Natural Sciences

National Institute for Basic Biology

  • Home
  • News
  • Press Release
  • > Pattern Dynamics in Adaxial-Abaxial Specific Gene Expression Are Modulated by a Plastid Retrograde Signal during Arabidopsis thaliana Leaf Development

News

Press Release

2013.07.26

Pattern Dynamics in Adaxial-Abaxial Specific Gene Expression Are Modulated by a Plastid Retrograde Signal during Arabidopsis thaliana Leaf Development

The maintenance and reformation of gene expression domains are the basis for the morphogenic processes of multicellular systems. In a leaf primordium of Arabidopsis thaliana, the expression of FILAMENTOUS FLOWER (FIL) and the activity of the microRNA miR165/166 are specific to the abaxial side. This miR165/166 activity restricts the target gene expression to the adaxial side. The adaxial and abaxial specific gene expressions are crucial for the wide expansion of leaf lamina. The FIL-expression and the miR165/166-free domains are almost mutually exclusive, and they have been considered to be maintained during leaf development. However, the research group of Dr. Kiyotaka Okada and Toshiaki Tameshige of the Laboratory of Plant Organ Development at NIBB found that the position of the boundary between the two domains gradually shifts from the adaxial side to the abaxial side. The cell lineage analysis revealed that this boundary shifting was associated with a sequential gene expression switch from the FIL-expressing (miR165/166 active) to the miR165/166-free (non-FIL-expressing) states. The group’s genetic analyses using the enlarged fil expression domain2 (enf2) mutant and chemical treatment experiments revealed that impairment in the plastid (chloroplast) gene expression machinery retards this boundary shifting and inhibits the lamina expansion. Furthermore, these developmental effects caused by the abnormal plastids were not observed in the genomes uncoupled1 (gun1) mutant background. This study characterizes the dynamic nature of the adaxial-abaxial specification process in leaf primordia and reveals that the dynamic process is affected by the GUN1-dependent retrograde signal in response to the failure of plastid gene expression. These findings advance our understanding of the molecular mechanism linking the plastid function to the leaf morphogenic processes.

 

 PLoS Genet 9(7): e1003655. doi:10.1371/journal.pgen.1003655

Pattern Dynamics in Adaxial-Abaxial Specific Gene Expression Are Modulated by a Plastid Retrograde Signal during Arabidopsis thaliana Leaf Development

 

Toshiaki Tameshige, Hironori Fujita, Keiro Watanabe, Koichi Toyokura, Maki Kondo, Kiyoshi Tatematsu, Noritaka Matsumoto, Ryuji Tsugeki, Masayoshi Kawaguchi, Mikio Nishimura, Kiyotaka Okada

 

http://www.plosgenetics.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pgen.1003655