Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 109, Issue 10, Pages 4002-4007Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1200636109
Keywords
signal transduction; cell division
Categories
Funding
- National Science Foundation [IOS-0846192]
- National Institutes of Health [F32-GM090534]
- Division Of Integrative Organismal Systems
- Direct For Biological Sciences [0846192] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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The transcription factor WUSCHEL (WUS) acts from a well-defined domain within the Arabidopsis thaliana shoot apical meristem (SAM) to maintain a stem cell niche. A negative-feedback loop involving the CLAVATA (CLV) signaling pathway regulates the number of WUS-expressing cells and provides the current paradigm for the homeostatic maintenance of stem cell numbers. Despite the continual turnover of cells in the SAM during development, the WUS domain remains patterned at a fixed distance below the shoot apex. Recent work has uncovered a positive-feedback loop between WUS function and the plant hormone cytokinin. Furthermore, loss of function of the cytokinin biosynthetic gene, LONELY GUY (LOG), results in a wus-like phenotype in rice. Herein, we find the Arabidopsis LOG4 gene is expressed in the SAM epidermis. We use this to develop a computational model representing a growing SAM to suggest the plausibility that apically derived cytokinin and CLV signaling, together, act as positional cues for patterning the WUS domain within the stem cell niche. Furthermore, model simulations backed by experimental data suggest a previously unknown negative feedback between WUS function and cytokinin biosynthesis in the Arabidopsis SAM epidermis. These results suggest a plausible dynamic feedback principle by which the SAM stem cell niche is patterned.
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