Pattern analysis of stem cell differentiation during in vitro Arabidopsis organogenesis

Pattern of auxin and cytokinin responses for shoot meristem induction results from the regulation of cytokinin biosynthesis by AUXIN RESPONSE FACTOR3

De novo organ regeneration is an excellent biological system for the study of fundamental questions regarding stem cell initiation, cell fate determination, and hormone signaling. Despite the general belief that auxin and cytokinin responses interact to regulate de novo organ regeneration, the molecular mechanisms underlying such a cross talk are little understood. Here, we show that spatiotemporal biosynthesis and polar transport resulted in local auxin distribution in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana), which in turn determined the cytokinin response during de novo shoot regeneration. Genetic and pharmacological interference of auxin distribution disrupted the cytokinin response and ATP/ADP ISOPENTENYLTRANSFERASE5 (AtIPT5) expression, affecting stem cell initiation and meristem formation. Transcriptomic data suggested that AUXIN RESPONSE FACTOR3 (ARF3) mediated the auxin response during de novo organ regeneration. Indeed, mutations in ARF3 caused ectopic cytokinin biosynthesis via the misexpression of AtIPT5, and this disrupted organ regeneration. We further showed that ARF3 directly bound to the promoter of AtIPT5 and negatively regulated AtIPT5 expression. The results from this study thus revealed an auxin-cytokinin cross talk mechanism involving distinct intermediate signaling components required for de novo stem cell initiation and shed new light on the mechanisms of organogenesis in planta.

Comparison between conventional indirect competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (icELISA) and simplified icELISA for small molecules

A simplified indirect competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (icELISA) for small molecules was established by modifying the procedure of conventional icELISA. The key change was that the analyte, antibody, and enzyme-labeled second antibody in the simplified icELISA were added in one step, whereas in conventional icELISA these reagents were added in two separate steps. Three small chemicals, namely zeatin riboside, glycyrrhetinic acid, and chlorimuron-ethyl, were used to verify the new assay format and compare the results obtained from conventional icELISA and simplified icELISA. The results indicated that, under optimized conditions, the new assay offered several advantages over the conventional icELISA, which are simpler, less time consuming and higher sensitive although it requires more amount of reagents. The assay sensitivity (IC50) was improved for 1.2-1.4-fold. Four licorice roots samples were analyzed by conventional icELISA and simplified icELISA, as well as liquid chromatography (LC). There was no significant difference among the content obtained from the three methods for each sample. The correlation between data obtained from conventional icELISA and simplified icELISA analyses was 0.9888. The results suggest that the simplified icELISA be useful for high throughput screening of small molecules.