A KNOX-Cytokinin Regulatory Module Predates the Origin of Indeterminate Vascular Plants

Current Biology : CB
Yoan CoudertC Jill Harrison

Abstract

The diverse forms of today's dominant vascular plant flora are generated by the sustained proliferative activity of sporophyte meristems at plants' shoot and root tips, a trait known as indeterminacy [1]. Bryophyte sister lineages to the vascular plants lack such indeterminate meristems and have an overall sporophyte form comprising a single small axis that ceases growth in the formation of a reproductive sporangium [1]. Genetic mechanisms regulating indeterminacy are well characterized in flowering plants, involving a feedback loop between class I KNOX genes and cytokinin [2, 3], and class I KNOX expression is a conserved feature of vascular plant meristems [4]. The transition from determinate growth to indeterminacy during evolution was a pre-requisite to vascular plant diversification, but mechanisms enabling the innovation of indeterminacy are unknown [5]. Here, we show that class I KNOX gene activity is necessary and sufficient for axis extension from an intercalary region of determinate moss shoots. As in Arabidopsis, class I KNOX activity can promote cytokinin biosynthesis by an ISOPENTENYL TRANSFERASE gene, PpIPT3. PpIPT3 promotes axis extension, and PpIPT3 and exogenously applied cytokinin can partially compensate for ...Continue Reading

Citations

Jan 20, 2020·The New Phytologist·Sarah M McKim
Sep 10, 2020·Evolution & Development·Victoria SpencerCecily Jill Harrison
Feb 12, 2020·Nature Plants·Jian ZhangZhi-Duan Chen
Jun 13, 2020·The Plant Journal : for Cell and Molecular Biology·Ameth N GarridoC Daniel Riggs
Aug 14, 2020·The New Phytologist·Eftychios FrangedakisPéter Szövényi
Oct 25, 2020·Trends in Plant Science·Elsa VéronYoan Coudert
Sep 22, 2020·Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution·Nasim RahmatpourBernard Goffinet
Oct 13, 2021·Current Biology : CB·Philip C J DonoghueHarald Schneider

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