July 3, 2017 Arabidopsis thaliana. Credit: Wikipedia.

Researchers at Dartmouth College have identified how a well-known plant hormone targets genes to regulate plant growth and development. The finding could allow scientists to establish organ-growing stem cells for grains like rice and corn, and may ultimately lead to solutions to stubborn agricultural problems.

The study, appearing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, describes how cytokinin activates the transcription factor ARR10 to control gene expression in the Arabidopsis plant - a member of the mustard family commonly used as a model in plant biology.

Cytokinin is a hormone that regulates numerous processes in plants, including cell division, growth of shoots and roots, grain yield and greening.

"The question has always been how cytokinin regulates so many different processes within a plant," said Eric Schaller, a professor of biological sciences at Dartmouth College. "Now we know the genes that are the primary targets of cytokinin, and we can provide the toolbox for manipulating the plant hormone response."

According to the paper, results from the analysis "shed light on the physiological role of the type-B ARRs in regulating the cytokinin response, the mechanism of type-B ARR activation, and the basis by which cytokinin regulates diverse aspects of growth and development as well as responses to biotic and abiotic factors."

As part of the study, conducted in collaboration with the University of North Carolina Charlotte and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, researchers were able to use the new understanding of how cytokinin works to grow shoots in tissue culture under conditions in which these plant organs normally do not form.

To make the plant tissues grow shoots in vitro, the research team increased the cytokinin sensitivity in the Arabidopsis plant. This resulted in activation of the WUSCHEL target gene, which is a key regulator of shoot development. The result confirms understanding of how to establish stem cells that lead to different types of organ growth.

"What we have done is activate the plant to make a stem cell center for a shoot to form," said Schaller. "By finding the direct targets of what is impacted by cytokinin, we can fine-tune our focus in the future."

According to Schaller, this research sets the stage for further work that could help improve yield of important agricultural products like rice and corn.

Explore further: KISS ME DEADLY proteins may help improve crop yields

More information: Yan O. Zubo el al., "Cytokinin induces genome-wide binding of the type-B response regulator ARR10 to regulate growth and development in Arabidopsis," PNAS (2017). http://www.pnas.org/cgi/doi/10.1073/pnas.1620749114

Dartmouth College researchers have identified a new regulator for plant hormone signalingthe KISS ME DEADLY family of proteins (KMDs) that may help to improve production of fruits, vegetables and grains.

Researchers at the University of Helsinki have discovered that cytokinin patterning, an important process in plant development, cannot happen via diffusion alone. While investigating a regulatory network in plant roots, they ...

Freiburg plant biologist Prof. Dr. Thomas Laux and his research group have published an article in the journal Developmental Cell presenting initial findings on how shoot stem cells in plants form during embryogenesis, the ...

Invisible to the naked eye, plant-parasitic nematodes are a huge threat to agriculture, causing billions in crop losses every year. Plant scientists at the University of Missouri and the University of Bonn in Germany have ...

The two most important growth hormones of plants, so far considered antagonists, also work synergistically. The activities of auxin and cytokinin, key molecules for plant growth and the formation of organs, such as leaves ...

Researchers from the Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences at University of Copenhagen have for the first time demonstrated that the production of a plant hormone by a beneficial microbe is protecting a plant from ...

A wealth of previously undescribed plant enzymes have been discovered by scientists at the John Innes Centre. The team who uncovered the compounds hope that harnessing the power of these enzymes will unlock a rich new vein ...

For the first time, researchers have succeeded in establishing the relationships between 200-million-year-old plants based on chemical fingerprints. Using infrared spectroscopy and statistical analysis of organic molecules ...

As senses go, there's nothing so immediate and concrete as our sense of touch. So it may come as a surprise that, on the molecular level, our sense of touch is still poorly understood.

The mass extinction that obliterated three-fourths of life on Earth, including non-avian dinosaurs, set the stage for the swift rise of frogs, a new study shows.

The town of Escalante in southern Utah is no small potatoes when it comes to scientific discovery; a new archaeological finding within its borders may rewrite the story of tuber domestication.

The conventional way of placing protein samples under an electron microscope during cryo-EM experiments may fall flat when it comes to getting the best picture of a protein's structure. In some cases, tilting a sheet of frozen ...

Please sign in to add a comment. Registration is free, and takes less than a minute. Read more

See more here:
Greater understanding of plant hormone results in stem cells that grow shoots - Phys.Org