Partial phenotypic reversion of ABA-deficient flacca tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) scions by a wild-type rootstock: normalizing shoot ethylene relations promotes leaf area but does not diminish whole plant transpiration rate

Ethylene stimulates tracheary element differentiation in Zinnia elegans cell cultures

The exact role of ethylene in xylogenesis remains unclear, but the Zinnia elegans cell culture system provides an excellent model with which to study its role during the differentiation of tracheary elements (TEs) in vitro. Here, we analysed ethylene homeostasis and function during Z. elegans TE differentiation using biochemical, molecular and pharmacological methods. Ethylene evolution was confined to specific stages of TE differentiation. It was found to peak at the time of TE maturation and to correlate with the activity of the ethylene biosynthetic 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) oxidase. The ethylene precursor ACC was exported and accumulated to high concentrations in the extracellular medium, which also displayed a high capacity to convert ACC into ethylene. The effects of adding inhibitors of the ethylene biosynthetic ACC synthase and ACC oxidase enzymes to the TE cultures demonstrated for the first time strict dependence of TE differentiation on ethylene biosynthesis and a stimulatory effect of ethylene on the rate of TE differentiation. In a whole-plant context, our results suggest that ethylene synthesis occurs in the apoplast of the xylem elements and that ethylene participates, in a paracrine manner, in the control of the cambial stem cell pool size during secondary xylem formation.

Root-synthesized cytokinins improve shoot growth and fruit yield in salinized tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) plants

Salinity limits crop productivity, in part by decreasing shoot concentrations of the growth-promoting and senescence-delaying hormones cytokinins. Since constitutive cytokinin overproduction may have pleiotropic effects on plant development, two approaches assessed whether specific root-localized transgenic IPT (a key enzyme for cytokinin biosynthesis) gene expression could substantially improve tomato plant growth and yield under salinity: transient root IPT induction (HSP70::IPT) and grafting wild-type (WT) shoots onto a constitutive IPT-expressing rootstock (WT/35S::IPT). Transient root IPT induction increased root, xylem sap, and leaf bioactive cytokinin concentrations 2- to 3-fold without shoot IPT gene expression. Although IPT induction reduced root biomass (by 15%) in control (non-salinized) plants, in salinized plants (100 mM NaCl for 22 d), increased cytokinin concentrations delayed stomatal closure and leaf senescence and almost doubled shoot growth (compared with WT plants), with concomitant increases in the essential nutrient K(+) (20%) and decreases in the toxic ion Na(+) (by 30%) and abscisic acid (by 20-40%) concentrations in transpiring mature leaves. Similarly, WT/35S::IPT plants (scion/rootstock) grown with 75 mM NaCl for 90 d had higher fruit trans-zeatin concentrations (1.5- to 2-fold) and yielded 30% more than WT/non-transformed plants. Enhancing root cytokinin synthesis modified both shoot hormonal and ionic status, thus ameliorating salinity-induced decreases in growth and yield.

Sugar input, metabolism, and signaling mediated by invertase: roles in development, yield potential, and response to drought and heat

Invertase (INV) hydrolyzes sucrose into glucose and fructose, thereby playing key roles in primary metabolism and plant development. Based on their pH optima and sub-cellular locations, INVs are categorized into cell wall, cytoplasmic, and vacuolar subgroups, abbreviated as CWIN, CIN, and VIN, respectively. The broad importance and implications of INVs in plant development and crop productivity have attracted enormous interest to examine INV function and regulation from multiple perspectives. Here, we review some exciting advances in this area over the last two decades, focusing on (1) new or emerging roles of INV in plant development and regulation at the post-translational level through interaction with inhibitors, (2) cross-talk between INV-mediated sugar signaling and hormonal control of development, and (3) sugar- and INV-mediated responses to drought and heat stresses and their impact on seed and fruit set. Finally, we discuss major questions arising from this new progress and outline future directions for unraveling mechanisms underlying INV-mediated plant development and their potential applications in plant biotechnology and agriculture.

Control of leaf growth by abscisic acid: hydraulic or non-hydraulic processes?

Abscisic acid (ABA) affects plant metabolism and water transfers via multiple mechanisms at cell, organ and whole plant levels. These mechanisms translate into contradictory effects on leaf growth, so the literature reports positive, null or negative effects of ABA on leaf growth upon water deficit. We review evidences based on genetic manipulations of ABA biosynthesis, feeding the plant with artificial ABA or partial root drying and provide elements to avoid confusions of effects. We propose that ABA has mainly three effects on growth. (i) Via its controlling effect on stomatal aperture and transpiration rate, an increased concentration of ABA tends to buffer the day-night alternations of leaf growth rate and the negative effect of evaporative demand. (ii) ABA tends to improve leaf growth via an increase in the conductance to water transfer in the plant as a result of increased tissue hydraulic conductivity. (iii) ABA has also a modest non-hydraulic effect which is negative in plants subjected to water deficit, either manipulated for ABA synthesis or fed with artificial ABA, but can be positive in well watered plants deficient of ABA. The overall effect of increasing ABA biosynthesis depends on the relative weight of each of these effects under different environmental scenarios.

Principal component analysis of hormone profiling data suggests an important role for cytokinins in regulating leaf growth and senescence of salinized tomato

High throughput analytical methods allow phytohormonal profiling, but the magnitude of the data generated makes it difficult to draw firm conclusions about the physiological roles of different compounds. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used as a mathematical tool to evaluate relationships between physiological and hormonal variables in two experiments with salinised tomato. When tomato plants (cv Boludo F1) were grafted onto a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population derived from a Solanum lycopersicum x S. cheesmaniae cross and grown under moderate salinity (75 mM NaCl) for 100 days under greenhouse conditions, PCA revealed an important role for leaf xylem cytokinins (CKs) in controlling leaf growth and photosystem II efficiency (Fv/Fm) and thus crop productivity under salinity. PCA analysis from a similar experiment, with ungrafted tomato grown under highly saline (100 mM NaCl) conditions, that evaluated the temporal sequence of leaf growth (as relative growth rate, LRGR) and senescence and hormone concentrations, revealed a similar influence of CKs on both processes, since Fv/Fm and LRGR were strongly loaded along the two principal components and placed in the same cluster as leaf trans-zeatin and/or related to other CK-related parameters. The conservative behaviour of the eigen vectors for Fv/Fm and the analyzed phytohormones in different compartments (xylem, leaf and root) between different experiments suggests an important role for CKs in regulating leaf senescence, while CKs and other hormones seem to regulate leaf growth under salinity.