MicroRNA156-mediated changes in leaf composition lead to altered photosynthetic traits during vegetative phase change.
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ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Lawrence EH
PROVIDER: S-EPMC8299463 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
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Project description:Vegetative phase change in Arabidopsis is regulated by miR156, a microRNA that promotes the expression of the juvenile phase and represses the expression of the adult phase. miR156 is expressed at a very high level early in shoot development and then decreases, leading to the onset of the adult phase. To determine the source of the factors that regulate vegetative phase change, we examined the effect of root and leaf ablation on the timing of this transition. Ablation of the root system or cotyledons had no effect on the timing of vegetative phase change, but ablation of leaf primordia delayed this transition in a miR156-dependent fashion. This treatment produced an increase in the overall abundance of miR156, which was attributable to an increase in the transcription of some, but not all, of the miR156 genes in Arabidopsis, and decreased the expression of SPL genes regulated by miR156. miR156 levels were also elevated by leaf ablation in Nicotiana benthamiana and in rejuvenating shoot apices of maize cultured in vitro. We conclude that vegetative phase change is initiated by a signal(s) produced by leaf primordia, which acts by repressing the transcription of specific members of the miR156 gene family.
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Project description:Plants transition through juvenile and adult phases of vegetative development in a process known as vegetative phase change (VPC). In poplars (genus Populus) the differences between these stages are subtle, making it difficult to determine when this transition occurs. Previous studies of VPC in poplars have relied on plants propagated in vitro, leaving the natural progression of this process unknown. We examined developmental morphology of seed-grown and in vitro derived Populus tremula × alba (clone 717-1B4), and compared the phenotype of these to transgenics with manipulated miR156 expression, the master regulator of VPC. In seed-grown plants, most traits changed from node-to-node during the first 3 months of development but remained constant after node 25. Many traits remained unchanged in clones over-expressing miR156, or were enhanced when miR156 was lowered, demonstrating their natural progression is regulated by the miR156/SPL pathway. The characteristic leaf fluttering of Populus is one of these miR156-regulated traits. Vegetative development in plants grown from culture mirrored that of seed-grown plants, allowing direct comparison between plants often used in research and those found in nature. These results provide a foundation for further research on the role of VPC in the ecology and evolution of this economically important genus.
| S-EPMC8353317 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Plants that develop under low light (LL) intensity often display a phenotype known as the "shade tolerance syndrome (STS)". This syndrome is similar to the phenotype of plants in the juvenile phase of shoot development, but the basis for this similarity is unknown. We tested the hypothesis that the STS is regulated by the same mechanism that regulates the juvenile vegetative phase by examining the effect of LL on rosette development in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). We found that LL prolonged the juvenile vegetative phase and that this was associated with an increase in the expression of the master regulators of vegetative phase change, miR156 and miR157, and a decrease in the expression of their SQUAMOSA PROMOTER-BINDING PROTEIN-LIKE (SPL) targets. Exogenous sucrose partially corrected the effect of LL on seedling development and miR156 expression. Our results suggest that the response of Arabidopsis to LL is mediated by an increase in miR156/miR157 expression and by factors that repress SPL gene expression independently of miR156/miR157, and is caused in part by a decrease in carbohydrate production. The effect of LL on vegetative phase change does not require the photoreceptors and transcription factors responsible for the shade avoidance syndrome, implying that light intensity and light quality regulate rosette development through different pathways.
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Project description:Vegetative phase change is the developmental transition from the juvenile phase to the adult phase during which a plant becomes competent for sexual reproduction. Gain of ability to flower is often accompanied by changes in patterns of differentiation in newly forming vegetative organs. In maize, juvenile leaves differ from adult leaves in morphology, anatomy, and cell wall composition. Whereas the normal sequence of juvenile followed by adult is repeated with every sexual generation, this sequence can be altered in maize by the isolation and culture of the shoot apex from an adult phase plant; an “adult” meristem so treated reverts to forming juvenile vegetative organs. To investigate the molecular differences between the juvenile and adult phases in maize comparisons among two juvenile samples, leaf 4 and culture-derived leaf 3 or 4, and an adult sample (leaf 9) were made using cDNA microarrays. All samples were leaf primordia at plastochron 6. A gene was scored as “phase specific” if it was up- (or down-) regulated in both juvenile samples compared to the adult sample with at least a twofold-change in gene expression at P-value less than or equal to 0.005. Some 221 ESTs up-regulated in juvenile and 28 ESTs up-regulated in adult were identified. Altered patterns of expression of selected ESTs in the phase change mutants Tp2, d1 and gl15 further confirmed these genes as being phase-specific and allowed us to position these genes in the known genetic hierarchy regulating phase change. Keywords: Transcript profiling among seed-derived juvenile leaf 4 and adult leaf 9 and culture-rejuvenated leaf 3 or 4 in maize
2008-09-01 | GSE9430 | GEO
Project description:Vegetative phase change is the developmental transition from the juvenile phase to the adult phase during which a plant becomes competent for sexual reproduction. Gain of ability to flower is often accompanied by changes in patterns of differentiation in newly forming vegetative organs. In maize, juvenile leaves differ from adult leaves in morphology, anatomy, and cell wall composition. Whereas the normal sequence of juvenile followed by adult is repeated with every sexual generation, this sequence can be altered in maize by the isolation and culture of the shoot apex from an adult phase plant; an âadultâ meristem so treated reverts to forming juvenile vegetative organs. To investigate the molecular differences between the juvenile and adult phases in maize comparisons among two juvenile samples, leaf 4 and culture-derived leaf 3 or 4, and an adult sample (leaf 9) were made using cDNA microarrays. All samples were leaf primordia at plastochron 6. A gene was scored as âphase specificâ if it was up- (or down-) regulated in both juvenile samples compared to the adult sample with at least a twofold-change in gene expression at P-value less than or equal to 0.005. Some 221 ESTs up-regulated in juvenile and 28 ESTs up-regulated in adult were identified. Altered patterns of expression of selected ESTs in the phase change mutants Tp2, d1 and gl15 further confirmed these genes as being phase-specific and allowed us to position these genes in the known genetic hierarchy regulating phase change. Keywords: Transcript profiling among seed-derived juvenile leaf 4 and adult leaf 9 and culture-rejuvenated leaf 3 or 4 in maize To identify juvenile or adult specific ESTs, total RNA from leaf primordia at plastochron 6 (P6) was isolated from leaves 4 (L4) and 9 (L9) from seed-derived plants and leaf 3 or 4 (RL3/4) from culture-derived plants. For each of six biological replications, each of the three pairwise comparisons of P6-staged leaf primordia from L4, L9 and RL3/4 was made on one slide. With six biological replications and three slides per replication (L4 vs. L9, L9 vs. RL3/4, RL3/4 vs. L4), this replicated loop design used a total of 18 slides. To ensure dye balance, each of the 18 target samples was measured once with Cy3 labeling and once with Cy5 labeling.
2010-06-20 | E-GEOD-9430 | biostudies-arrayexpress
Project description:After germination, plants enter juvenile vegetative phase and then transition to an adult vegetative phase before producing reproductive structures. The character and timing of the juvenile-to-adult transition vary widely between species. In annual plants, this transition occurs soon after germination and usually involves relatively minor morphological changes, whereas in trees and other perennial woody plants it occurs after months or years and can involve major changes in shoot architecture. Whether this transition is controlled by the same mechanism in annual and perennial plants is unknown. In the annual forb Arabidopsis thaliana and in maize (Zea mays), vegetative phase change is controlled by the sequential activity of microRNAs miR156 and miR172. miR156 is highly abundant in seedlings and decreases during the juvenile-to-adult transition, while miR172 has an opposite expression pattern. We observed similar changes in the expression of these genes in woody species with highly differentiated, well-characterized juvenile and adult phases (Acacia confusa, Acacia colei, Eucalyptus globulus, Hedera helix, Quercus acutissima), as well as in the tree Populus x canadensis, where vegetative phase change is marked by relatively minor changes in leaf morphology and internode length. Overexpression of miR156 in transgenic P. x canadensis reduced the expression of miR156-targeted SPL genes and miR172, and it drastically prolonged the juvenile phase. Our results indicate that miR156 is an evolutionarily conserved regulator of vegetative phase change in both annual herbaceous plants and perennial trees.
| S-EPMC3044678 | biostudies-literature
Project description:An important step during plant development is the transition from juvenile to adult growth. It is only after this transition that plants are reproductively competent. Given the great danger that transposon activity represents to the germ line, this may also be an important period during development with respect to transposon regulation and silencing. We demonstrate that a change in expression of a key component of the RNA silencing pathway is associated with both vegetative phase change and shifts in epigenetic regulation of a maize transposon.
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Project description:The aim of this study was to systematically analyze the potential and limitations of using plant functional trait observations from global databases versus in situ data to improve our understanding of vegetation impacts on ecosystem functional properties (EFPs). Using ecosystem photosynthetic capacity as an example, we first provide an objective approach to derive robust EFP estimates from gross primary productivity (GPP) obtained from eddy covariance flux measurements. Second, we investigate the impact of synchronizing EFPs and plant functional traits in time and space to evaluate their relationships, and the extent to which we can benefit from global plant trait databases to explain the variability of ecosystem photosynthetic capacity. Finally, we identify a set of plant functional traits controlling ecosystem photosynthetic capacity at selected sites. Suitable estimates of the ecosystem photosynthetic capacity can be derived from light response curve of GPP responding to radiation (photosynthetically active radiation or absorbed photosynthetically active radiation). Although the effect of climate is minimized in these calculations, the estimates indicate substantial interannual variation of the photosynthetic capacity, even after removing site-years with confounding factors like disturbance such as fire events. The relationships between foliar nitrogen concentration and ecosystem photosynthetic capacity are tighter when both of the measurements are synchronized in space and time. When using multiple plant traits simultaneously as predictors for ecosystem photosynthetic capacity variation, the combination of leaf carbon to nitrogen ratio with leaf phosphorus content explains the variance of ecosystem photosynthetic capacity best (adjusted R2 = 0.55). Overall, this study provides an objective approach to identify links between leaf level traits and canopy level processes and highlights the relevance of the dynamic nature of ecosystems. Synchronizing measurements of eddy covariance fluxes and plant traits in time and space is shown to be highly relevant to better understand the importance of intra- and interspecific trait variation on ecosystem functioning.
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Project description:Shoot development in many higher plant species is characterized by phase change, where meristems and organs transition from one set of identities to another. The transition from a juvenile to adult leaf identity in maize is regulated by the APETALA2-like gene glossy15 (gl15). We demonstrate here that increasing gl15 activity in transgenic maize not only increases the number of leaves expressing juvenile traits, but also delays the onset of reproductive development, indicating that gl15 plays a primary role in the maintenance of the juvenile phase. We also show that the accumulation of a maize microRNA homologous to miR172 increases during shoot development and mediates gl15 mRNA degradation. These data indicate that vegetative phase change in maize is regulated by the opposing actions of gl15 and miR172, with gl15 maintaining the juvenile phase and miR172 promoting the transition to the adult phase by down-regulation of gl15. Our results also suggest that the balance of activities between APETALA2-like genes and miR172 may be a general mechanism for regulating vegetative phase change in higher plants.
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Project description:Structural and nutrient traits of a leaf are important for understanding plant ecological strategies (e.g., drought avoidance). We studied the specific leaf area (SLA), leaf carbon content (LCC), leaf nitrogen content (LNC), leaf phosphorous content (LPC), and the phenophase sequence index (PSI) in 126 Mediterranean perennial species from predesert (SMS) and semiarid (SaMS) to subalpine (SAS), alpine cushion (AcS), and oro-Mediterranean (AjS) shrublands, which represent eight functional groups (evergreen and deciduous trees, evergreen large and half shrubs, deciduous large and half shrubs, succulents and perennial herbs). We analyzed the variation and relationships between leaf traits and PSI among shrublands, functional groups, and within species with drought-avoidance mechanisms. SLA variation of 20-60% could be ascribed to differences between functional groups and only 38-48% to different shrublands increasing from the predesert to the alpine. Alpine species display low PSI and N:P and high SLA, LNC, LPC, LCC, and C:N. On the contrary, predesert and semiarid showed high PSI and low SLA. SLA mediates the vegetative and reproductive phenological plant sequencing, high SLA is often associated with the overlapping in growth and reproductive phenophases with a seasonal reduction of vegetative growth, whereas low SLA is associated with vegetative and reproductive sequencing and a seasonal extension of vegetative growth. Species with drought-avoidance mechanisms (e.g., semideciduous species) contribute to an increase in the mean values of the SLA and LNC because these species show similar leaf and phenological patterns as the deciduous (high SLA and LNC and low PSI). The N:P indicates that only the alpine shrublands could present P limitations. The positive correlations between SLA and LPC and LNC and LPC (leaf economic spectrum) and the negative correlation between SLA and C:N were consistently maintained in the studied arid Mediterranean shrublands.
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