Journal
PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Volume 114, Issue 10, Pages 2765-2770Publisher
NATL ACAD SCIENCES
DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1618782114
Keywords
TOR; light; glucose; auxin; ROP2
Categories
Funding
- Horticultural Biology and Metabolomics Center, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [31422008]
- Recruitment Program of Global Experts (People's Republic of China)
- Chinese Academy of Sciences
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The developmental plasticity of plants relies on the remarkable ability of the meristems to integrate nutrient and energy availability with environmental signals. Meristems in root and shoot apexes share highly similar molecular players but are spatially separated by soil. Whether and how these two meristematic tissues have differential activation requirements for local nutrient, hormone, and environmental cues (e.g., light) remain enigmatic in photosynthetic plants. Here, we report that the activation of root and shoot apexes relies on distinct glucose and light signals. Glucose energy signaling is sufficient to activate target of rapamycin (TOR) kinase in root apexes. In contrast, both the glucose and light signals are required for TOR activation in shoot apexes. Strikingly, exogenously applied auxin is able to replace light to activate TOR in shoot apexes and promote true leaf development. A relatively low concentration of auxin in the shoot and high concentration of auxin in the root might be responsible for this distinctive light requirement in root and shoot apexes, because light is required to promote auxin biosynthesis in the shoot. Furthermore, we reveal that the small GTPase Rho-related protein 2 (ROP2) transduces light-auxin signal to activate TOR by direct interaction, which, in turn, promotes transcription factors E2Fa,b for activating cell cycle genes in shoot apexes. Consistently, constitutively activated ROP2 plants stimulate TOR in the shoot apex and cause true leaf development even without light. Together, our findings establish a pivotal hub role of TOR signaling in integrating different environmental signals to regulate distinct developmental transition and growth in the shoot and root.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available