The SAC51 Family Plays a Central Role in Thermospermine Responses in Arabidopsis

ACL5 acquired strict thermospermine synthesis activity during the emergence of vascular plants

Norspermine (Nspm), one of the uncommon polyamines (PAs), was detected in bryophytes and lycophytes; therefore, the aminopropyltransferases involved in the synthesis of Nspm were investigated. The enzymatic activity was evaluated by the transient high expression of various aminopropyltransferase genes in Nicotiana benthamiana, followed by quantification of PA distribution in the leaves using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. The bryophyte orthologues of ACL5, which is known to synthesise thermospermine (Tspm) in flowering plants, were found to have strong Nspm synthesis activity. In addition, two ACL5 orthologous with different substrate specificities were conserved in Selaginella moellendorffii, one of which was involved in Tspm synthesis and the other in Nspm synthesis. Therefore, further detailed analysis using these two factors revealed that the β-hairpin structural region consisting of β-strands 1 and 2 at the N-terminus of ACL5 is involved in substrate specificity. Through functional analysis of a total of 40 ACL5 genes in 33 organisms, including algae, it was shown that ACL5 has changed its substrate specificity several times during plant evolution and diversification. Furthermore, it was strongly suggested that ACL5 acquired strict Tspm synthesis activity during the emergence of vascular plants, especially through major changes around the β-hairpin structural region.

A Solanum lycopersicum polyamine oxidase contributes to the control of plant growth, xylem differentiation, and drought stress tolerance

Polyamines are involved in several plant physiological processes. In Arabidopsis thaliana, five FAD-dependent polyamine oxidases (AtPAO1 to AtPAO5) contribute to polyamine homeostasis. AtPAO5 catalyzes the back-conversion of thermospermine (T-Spm) to spermidine and plays a role in plant development, xylem differentiation, and abiotic stress tolerance. In the present study, to verify whether T-Spm metabolism can be exploited as a new route to improve stress tolerance in crops and to investigate the underlying mechanisms, tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) AtPAO5 homologs were identified (SlPAO2, SlPAO3, and SlPAO4) and CRISPR/Cas9-mediated loss-of-function slpao3 mutants were obtained. Morphological, molecular, and physiological analyses showed that slpao3 mutants display increased T-Spm levels and exhibit changes in growth parameters, number and size of xylem elements, and expression levels of auxin- and gibberellin-related genes compared to wild-type plants. The slpao3 mutants are also characterized by improved tolerance to drought stress, which can be attributed to a diminished xylem hydraulic conductivity that limits water loss, as well as to a reduced vulnerability to embolism. Altogether, this study evidences conservation, though with some significant variations, of the T-Spm-mediated regulatory mechanisms controlling plant growth and differentiation across different plant species and highlights the T-Spm role in improving stress tolerance while not constraining growth.

What, where, and how: Regulation of translation and the translational landscape in plants

Translation is a crucial step in gene expression and plays a vital role in regulating various aspects of plant development and environmental responses. It is a dynamic and complex program that involves interactions between mRNAs, transfer RNAs, and the ribosome machinery through both cis- and trans-regulation while integrating internal and external signals. Translational control can act in a global (transcriptome-wide) or mRNA-specific manner. Recent advances in genome-wide techniques, particularly ribosome profiling and proteomics, have led to numerous exciting discoveries in both global and mRNA-specific translation. In this review, we aim to provide a "primer" that introduces readers to this fascinating yet complex cellular process and provide a big picture of how essential components connect within the network. We begin with an overview of mRNA translation, followed by a discussion of the experimental approaches and recent findings in the field, focusing on unannotated translation events and translational control through cis-regulatory elements on mRNAs and trans-acting factors, as well as signaling networks through 3 conserved translational regulators TOR, SnRK1, and GCN2. Finally, we briefly touch on the spatial regulation of mRNAs in translational control. Here, we focus on cytosolic mRNAs; translation in organelles and viruses is not covered in this review.

Thermospermine Is an Evolutionarily Ancestral Phytohormone Required for Organ Development and Stress Responses in Marchantia Polymorpha

Thermospermine suppresses auxin-inducible xylem differentiation, whereas its structural isomer, spermine, is involved in stress responses in angiosperms. The thermospermine synthase, ACAULIS5 (ACL5), is conserved from algae to land plants, but its physiological functions remain elusive in non-vascular plants. Here, we focused on MpACL5, a gene in the liverwort Marchantia polymorpha, that rescued the dwarf phenotype of the acl5 mutant in Arabidopsis. In the Mpacl5 mutants generated by genome editing, severe growth retardation was observed in the vegetative organ, thallus, and the sexual reproductive organ, gametangiophore. The mutant gametangiophores exhibited remarkable morphological defects such as short stalks, fasciation and indeterminate growth. Two gametangiophores fused together, and new gametangiophores were often initiated from the old ones. Furthermore, Mpacl5 showed altered responses to heat and salt stresses. Given the absence of spermine in bryophytes, these results suggest that thermospermine has a dual primordial function in organ development and stress responses in M. polymorpha. The stress response function may have eventually been assigned to spermine during land plant evolution.

Overexpression of OsACL5 triggers environmentally-dependent leaf rolling and reduces grain size in rice

Major polyamines include putrescine, spermidine, spermine and thermospermine, which play vital roles in growth and adaptation against environmental changes in plants. Thermospermine (T-Spm) is synthetised by ACL5. The function of ACL5 in rice is still unknown. In this study, we used a reverse genetic strategy to investigate the biological function of OsACL5. We generated several knockout mutants by pYLCRISPR/Cas9 system and overexpressing (OE) lines of OsACL5. Interestingly, the OE plants exhibited environmentally-dependent leaf rolling, smaller grains, lighter 1000-grain weight and reduction in yield per plot. The area of metaxylem vessels of roots and leaves of OE plants were significantly smaller than those of WT, which possibly caused reduction in leaf water potential, resulting in leaf rolling with rise in the environmental temperature and light intensity and decrease in humidity. Additionally, the T-Spm contents were markedly increased by over ninefold whereas the ethylene evolution was reduced in OE plants, suggesting that T-Spm signalling pathway interacts with ethylene pathway to regulate multiple agronomic characters. Moreover, the osacl5 exhibited an increase in grain length, 1000-grain weight, and yield per plot. OsACL5 may affect grain size via mediating the expression of OsDEP1, OsGS3 and OsGW2. Furthermore, haplotypes analysis indicated that OsACL5 plays a conserved function on regulating T-Spm levels during the domestication of rice. Our data demonstrated that identification of OsACL5 provides a theoretical basis for understanding the physiological mechanism of T-Spm which may play roles in triggering environmentally dependent leaf rolling; OsACL5 will be an important gene resource for molecular breeding for higher yield.

Quantification of Xylem-Specific Thermospermine-Dependent Translation of SACL Transcripts with Dual Luciferase Reporter System

Thermospermine (Tspm) is a polyamine found to play a crucial role in xylem development in Arabidopsis thaliana. Tspm promotes the translation of the SACL genes by counteracting the activity of a cis element in their 5'-leader region that suppresses the translation of the main ORF. Here we describe a method to test the Tspm-dependent translational regulation of the 5'-leader of the SACL mRNAs in Nicotiana benthamiana leaves and A. thaliana mesophyll protoplasts with a dual luciferase assay. The dual luciferase reporter system is used to assess gene expression and is based on the detection of the Firefly luciferase luminescence driven by a specific promoter. However, it can also be used to evaluate the cis elements found in 5'-leader that influence the translation of the main ORF in a transcript. We have used a modified version of the pGreenII 0800 LUC plasmid carrying a double 35S promoter, followed by a poly-linker sequence in phase with the Firefly luciferase gene (pGreen2x35SLUC) where the full 5'-leader sequence of SACL3 was cloned. This construct was used for Agrobacterium tumefaciens infiltration of N. benthamiana leaves and for transfection of A. thaliana mesophyll protoplasts, followed by mock or Tspm treatments. The resulting translation of the Firefly luciferase in these organisms and conditions was then tested by measuring luminescence with the dual luciferase assay and a luminometer. These experiments have allowed us to quantify the positive effect of Tspm in the translation of SACL3 transcripts.

Suppression of the dwarf phenotype of an Arabidopsis mutant defective in thermospermine biosynthesis by a synonymous codon change in the SAC51 uORF

Thermospermine plays a critical role in negatively regulating xylem development in angiosperms. A mutant of Arabidopsis thaliana that is defective in thermospermine biosynthesis, acaulis5 (acl5), exhibits a dwarf phenotype with excessive xylem formation. Mechanistically thermospermine acts in attenuating the inhibitory effect of an evolutionarily conserved upstream open reading frame (uORF) on the main ORF of SAC51, which encodes a basic helix-loop-helix protein involved in xylem repression. Here, we revealed that a semidominant suppressor of acl5, sac503, which partially restores the acl5 phenotype, has a point mutation in the conserved uORF of SAC51 with no amino acid substitution in the deduced peptide sequence. In transgenic lines carrying the β-glucuronidase (GUS) reporter gene fused with the SAC51 5' region containing the uORF, the mutant construct was shown to confer higher GUS activity than does the wild-type SAC51 construct. We confirmed that sac503 mRNA was more stable than SAC51 mRNA in acl5. These results suggest that the single-base change in sac503 positively affects the translation of its main ORF instead of thermospermine. We further found that the uORF-GUS fusion protein could be synthesized in planta from the wild-type and sac503 translational fusion constructs.

Loss of function of an Arabidopsis homologue of JMJD6 suppresses the dwarf phenotype of acl5, a mutant defective in thermospermine biosynthesis

In Arabidopsis thaliana, the ACL5 gene encodes thermospermine synthase and its mutant, acl5, exhibits a dwarf phenotype with excessive xylem formation. Studies of suppressor mutants of acl5 reveal the involvement of thermospermine in enhancing mRNA translation of the SAC51 gene family. We show here that a mutant, sac59, which partially suppresses the acl5 phenotype, has a point mutation in JMJ22 encoding a D6-class Jumonji C protein (JMJD6). A T-DNA insertion allele, jmj22-2, also partially suppressed the acl5 phenotype while mutants of its closest two homologs JMJ21 and JMJ20 had no such effects, suggesting a unique role for JMJ22 in plant development. We found that mRNAs of the SAC51 family are more stabilized in acl5 jmj22-2 than in acl5.

Molecular mechanisms of vascular tissue patterning in Arabidopsis thaliana L. roots

A vascular system in plants is a product of aromorphosis that enabled them to colonize land because it delivers water, mineral and organic compounds to plant organs and provides effective communications between organs and mechanical support. Vascular system development is a common object of fundamental research in plant development biology. In the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, early stages of vascular tissue formation in the root are a bright example of the self-organization of a bisymmetric (having two planes of symmetry) pattern of hormone distribution, which determines vascular cell fates. In the root, vascular tissue development comprises four stages: (1) specification of progenitor cells for the provascular meristem in early embryonic stages, (2) the growth and patterning of the embryo provascular meristem, (3) postembryonic maintenance of the cell identity in the vascular tissue initials within the root apical meristem, and (4) differentiation of their descendants. Although the anatomical details of A. thaliana root vasculature development have long been known and described in detail, our knowledge of the underlying molecular and genetic mechanisms remains limited. In recent years, several important advances have been made, shedding light on the regulation of the earliest events in provascular cells specification. In this review, we summarize the latest data on the molecular and genetic mechanisms of vascular tissue patterning in A. thaliana root. The first part of the review describes the root vasculature ontogeny, and the second reconstructs the sequence of regulatory events that underlie this histogenesis and determine the development of the progenitors of the vascular initials in the embryo and organization of vascular initials in the seedling root.

Global analysis of boron-induced ribosome stalling reveals its effects on translation termination and unique regulation by AUG-stops in Arabidopsis shoots

We previously reported that ribosome stalling at AUG-stop sequences in the 5'-untranslated region plays a critical role in regulating the expression of Arabidopsis thaliana NIP5;1, which encodes a boron uptake transporter, in response to boron conditions in media. This ribosome stalling is triggered specifically by boric acid, but the mechanisms are unknown. Although upstream open reading frames (uORFs) are known in many cases to regulate translation through peptides encoded by the uORF, AUG-stop stalling does not involve any peptide synthesis. The unique feature of AUG-stops - that termination follows immediately after initiation - suggests a possible effect of boron on the translational process itself. However, the generality of AUG-stop-mediated translational regulation and the effect of boron on translation at the genome scale are not clear. Here, we conducted a ribosome profiling analysis to reveal the genome-wide regulation of translation in response to boron conditions in A. thaliana shoots. We identified hundreds of translationally regulated genes that function in various biological processes. Under high-boron conditions, transcripts with reduced translation efficiency were rich in uORFs, highlighting the importance of uORF-mediated translational regulation. We found 673 uORFs that had more frequent ribosome association. Moreover, transcripts that were translationally downregulated under high-boron conditions were rich in minimum uORFs (AUG-stops), suggesting that AUG-stops play a global role in the boron response. Metagene analysis revealed that boron increased the ribosome occupancy of stop codons, indicating that this element is involved in global translational termination processes.

Salt hypersensitivity is associated with excessive xylem development in a thermospermine-deficient mutant of Arabidopsis thaliana

In Arabidopsis, spermine is produced in most tissues and has been implicated in stress response, while its structural isomer thermospermine is only in xylem precursor cells. Studies on acaulis5 (acl5), a mutant defective in the biosynthesis of thermospermine, have revealed that thermospermine plays a repressive role in xylem development through enhancement of mRNA translation of the SAC51 family. In contrast, the pao5 mutant defective in the degradation of thermospermine has high levels of thermospermine and shows increased salt tolerance, suggesting a role of thermospermine in salt stress response. Here we compared acl5 with a mutant of spermine synthase, spms, in terms of abiotic stress tolerance and found that acl5 was much more sensitive to sodium than the wild-type and spms. A double-mutant of acl5 and sac51-d, which suppresses the excessive xylem phenotype of acl5, recovered normal sensitivity, while a quadruple T-DNA insertion mutant of the SAC51 family, which has an increased thermospermine level but shows excessive xylem development, showed increased salt sensitivity, unlike pao5. Together with the result that the salt tolerance of both wild-type and acl5 seedlings was improved by long-term treatment with thermospermine, we suggest a correlation of the salt tolerance with reduced xylem development rather than with the thermospermine level. We further found that the mutants containing high thermospermine levels showed increased tolerance to drought and heat stress, suggesting another role of thermospermine that may be common with that of spermine and secondary to that in restricting excess xylem development associated with salt hypersensitivity.

Effect of Thermospermine on the Growth and Expression of Polyamine-Related Genes in Rice Seedlings

A mutant defective in the biosynthesis of thermospermine, acaulis5 (acl5), shows a dwarf phenotype with excess xylem vessels in Arabidopsis thaliana. Exogenous supply of thermospermine remarkably represses xylem differentiation in the root of seedlings, indicating the role of thermospermine in proper repression of xylem differentiation. However, the effect of thermospermine has rarely been investigated in other plant species. In this paper, we examined its effect on the growth and gene expression in rice seedlings. When grown with thermospermine, rice seedlings had no clearly enlarged metaxylem vessels in the root. Expression of OsACL5 was reduced in response to thermospermine, suggesting a negative feedback control of thermospermine biosynthesis like in Arabidopsis. Unlike Arabidopsis, however, rice showed up-regulation of phloem-expressed genes, OsHB5 and OsYSL16, by one-day treatment with thermospermine. Furthermore, expression of OsPAO2 and OsPAO6, encoding extracellular polyamine oxidase whose orthologs are not present in Arabidopsis, was induced by both thermospermine and spermine. These results suggest that thermospermine affects the expression of a subset of genes in rice different from those affected in Arabidopsis.

Genome-wide analyses of the bHLH gene family reveals structural and functional characteristics in the aquatic plant Nelumbo nucifera

Lotus (Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn.) is an economically important aquatic plant with multiple applications, but water salinity and cold stress seriously affect lotus yield and distribution. The basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factors (TFs) play a vital role in plant growth and development, metabolic regulation processes and responses to environmental changes. However, systematic analyses of the bHLH TF family in lotus has not yet been reported. Here, we report the identification and description of bHLH genes in lotus (NnbHLHs) with a focus on functional prediction, particularly for those involved in stress resistance. In all, 115 NnbHLHs were identified in the lotus genome and classified into 19 subfamilies. The chromosomal distribution, physicochemical properties, bHLH domain, conserved motif compositions and evolution of these 115 NnbHLHs were further analyzed. To better understand the functions of the lotus bHLH family, gene ontology, cis-element, and phylogenetic analyses were conducted. NnbHLHs were predicted to be involved in plant development, metabolic regulation and responses to stress, in accordance with previous findings. Overall, 15 NnbHLHs were further investigated with functional prediction via quantitative real-time PCR analyses. Meanwhile, expression profiles of NnbHLHs in four tissues indicated that many NnbHLHs showed tissue preference in their expression. This study is supposed to provide a good foundation for further research into the functions and evolution of NnbHLHs, and identifies candidate genes for stress resistance in lotus.

Conservation of Thermospermine Synthase Activity in Vascular and Non-vascular Plants

In plants, the only confirmed function for thermospermine is regulating xylem cells maturation. However, genes putatively encoding thermospermine synthases have been identified in the genomes of both vascular and non-vascular plants. Here, we verify the activity of the thermospermine synthase genes and the presence of thermospermine in vascular and non-vascular land plants as well as in the aquatic plant Chlamydomonas reinhardtii. In addition, we provide information about differential content of thermospermine in diverse organs at different developmental stages in some vascular species that suggest that, although the major role of thermospermine in vascular plants is likely to be xylem development, other potential roles in development and/or responses to stress conditions could be associated to such polyamine. In summary, our results in vascular and non-vascular species indicate that the capacity to synthesize thermospermine is conserved throughout the entire plant kingdom.

Polyamines as Quality Control Metabolites Operating at the Post-Transcriptional Level

Plant polyamines (PAs) have been assigned a large number of physiological functions with unknown molecular mechanisms in many cases. Among the most abundant and studied polyamines, two of them, namely spermidine (Spd) and thermospermine (Tspm), share some molecular functions related to quality control pathways for tightly regulated mRNAs at the level of translation. In this review, we focus on the roles of Tspm and Spd to facilitate the translation of mRNAs containing upstream ORFs (uORFs), premature stop codons, and ribosome stalling sequences that may block translation, thus preventing their degradation by quality control mechanisms such as the nonsense-mediated decay pathway and possible interactions with other mRNA quality surveillance pathways.

Complexity and Conservation of Thermospermine-Responsive uORFs of SAC51 Family Genes in Angiosperms

ACAULIS5 (ACL5) encodes thermospermine synthase in Arabidopsis and its loss-of-function mutant acl5 shows excess xylem differentiation and severe dwarfism. SAC51 encodes a basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) protein and was identified from sac51-d, a dominant suppressor mutant of acl5, which restores the wild-type phenotype without thermospermine. The 5' leader of the SAC51 mRNA contains multiple upstream open-reading frames (uORFs) and sac51-d has a premature stop codon in the fourth uORF. This uORF is conserved among SAC51 family genes in vascular plants. According to the GUS reporter assay, the SAC51 promoter was not responsive to thermospermine but the SAC51 5' leader fused to the constitutive 35S promoter enhanced the GUS activity in response to thermospermine. Disruption experiments of each start codon of the SAC51 uORFs revealed that uORF4 and uORF6 whose start codon corresponds to the second methionine codon of uORF4 had an inhibitory effect on the main ORF translation while the other four uORFs rather had a stimulatory effect. The response of the 5' leader to thermospermine was retained after disruption of each one of six start codons of these uORFs but abolished by mutating both uORF4 and uORF6 start codons, suggesting the importance of the C-terminal sequence shared by these uORFs in the action of thermospermine. We introduced GUS fusions with 5' leaders of SAC51 family genes from other angiosperm species into Arabidopsis and found that all 5' leaders responsive to thermospermine, so far examined, contained these two conserved, and overlapping uORFs.

Plant Vascular Tissues-Connecting Tissue Comes in All Shapes

For centuries, humans have grown and used structures based on vascular tissues in plants. One could imagine that life would have developed differently without wood as a resource for building material, paper, heating energy, or fuel and without edible tubers as a food source. In this review, we will summarise the status of research on Arabidopsis thaliana vascular development and subsequently focus on how this knowledge has been applied and expanded in research on the wood of trees and storage organs of crop plants. We will conclude with an outlook on interesting open questions and exciting new research opportunities in this growing and important field.

UTR-Dependent Control of Gene Expression in Plants

Throughout their lives, plants sense many developmental and environmental stimuli, and activation of optimal responses against these stimuli requires extensive transcriptional reprogramming. To facilitate this activation, plant mRNA contains untranslated regions (UTRs) that significantly increase the coding capacity of the genome by producing multiple mRNA variants from the same gene. In this review we compare UTRs of arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) and rice (Oryza sativum) at the genome scale to highlight their complexity in crop plants. We discuss different modes of UTR-based regulation with emphasis on genes that regulate multiple plant processes, including flowering, stress responses, and nutrient homeostasis. We demonstrate functional specificity in genes with variable UTR length and propose future research directions.

North, East, South, West: mapping vascular tissues onto the Arabidopsis root

The Arabidopsis root has provided an excellent model for understanding patterning processes and cell fate specification. Vascular patterning represents an especially interesting process, as new positional information must be generated to transform an approximately radially symmetric root pole into a bisymmetric structure with a single xylem axis. This process requires both growth of the embryonic tissue alongside the subsequent patterning. Recently researchers have identified a series of transcription factors that modulate cell divisions to control vascular tissues growth. Spatial regulation in the signalling of two hormones, auxin and cytokinin, combine with other transcription factors to pattern the xylem axis. We are now witnessing the discovery of increasingly complex interactions between these hormones that can be interpreted through the use of mathematical models.

Thermospermine: An Evolutionarily Ancient but Functionally New Compound in Plants

Themospermine is a structural isomer of spermine and is present in some bacteria and most of plants. An Arabidopsis mutant, acaulis5 (acl5), that is defective in the biosynthesis of thermospermine displays excessive proliferation of xylem vessels with dwarfed growth. Recent studies using acl5 and its suppressor mutants that recover the growth without thermospermine have revealed that thermospermine plays a key role in the negative control of the proliferation of xylem vessels through enhancing translation of specific mRNAs that contain a conserved upstream open-reading-frame (uORF) in the 5' leader region.

Global analysis of ribosome-associated noncoding RNAs unveils new modes of translational regulation

Noncoding RNAs are an underexplored reservoir of regulatory molecules in eukaryotes. We analyzed the environmental response of roots to phosphorus (Pi) nutrition to understand how a change in availability of an essential element is managed. Pi availability influenced translational regulation mediated by small upstream ORFs on protein-coding mRNAs. Discovery, classification, and evaluation of long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) associated with translating ribosomes uncovered diverse new examples of translational regulation. These included Pi-regulated small peptide synthesis, ribosome-coupled phased small interfering RNA production, and the translational regulation of natural antisense RNAs and other regulatory RNAs. This study demonstrates that translational control contributes to the stability and activity of regulatory RNAs, providing an avenue for manipulation of traits.

Eukaryotic transcriptomes contain a major non–protein-coding component that includes precursors of small RNAs as well as long noncoding RNA (lncRNAs). Here, we utilized the mapping of ribosome footprints on RNAs to explore translational regulation of coding and noncoding RNAs in roots of Arabidopsis thaliana shifted from replete to deficient phosphorous (Pi) nutrition. Homodirectional changes in steady-state mRNA abundance and translation were observed for all but 265 annotated protein-coding genes. Of the translationally regulated mRNAs, 30% had one or more upstream ORF (uORF) that influenced the number of ribosomes on the principal protein-coding region. Nearly one-half of the 2,382 lncRNAs detected had ribosome footprints, including 56 with significantly altered translation under Pi-limited nutrition. The prediction of translated small ORFs (sORFs) by quantitation of translation termination and peptidic analysis identified lncRNAs that produce peptides, including several deeply evolutionarily conserved and significantly Pi-regulated lncRNAs. Furthermore, we discovered that natural antisense transcripts (NATs) frequently have actively translated sORFs, including five with low-Pi up-regulation that correlated with enhanced translation of the sense protein-coding mRNA. The data also confirmed translation of miRNA target mimics and lncRNAs that produce trans-acting or phased small-interfering RNA (tasiRNA/phasiRNAs). Mutational analyses of the positionally conserved sORF of TAS3a linked its translation with tasiRNA biogenesis. Altogether, this systematic analysis of ribosome-associated mRNAs and lncRNAs demonstrates that nutrient availability and translational regulation controls protein and small peptide-encoding mRNAs as well as a diverse cadre of regulatory RNAs.

Secondary growth as a determinant of plant shape and form

Plants are the primary producers of biomass on earth. As an almost stereotypic feature, higher plants generate continuously growing bodies mediated by the activity of different groups of stem cells, the meristems. Shoot and root thickening is one of the fundamental growth processes determining form and function of these bodies. Mediated by a group of cylindrical meristems located below organ surfaces, vascular and protective tissues are continuously generated in a highly plastic manner, a competence essential for the survival in an ever changing environment. Acknowledging the fundamental role of this process, which is overall designated as secondary growth, we discuss in this review our current knowledge about the evolution and molecular regulation of the vascular cambium. The cambium is the meristem responsible for the formation of wood and bast, the two types of vascular tissues important for long-distance transport of water and assimilates, respectively. Although regulatory patterns are only beginning to emerge, we show that cambium activity represents a highly rewarding model for studying cell fate decisions, tissue patterning and differentiation, which has experienced an outstanding phylogenetic diversification.

Genome-wide analysis of basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factors in Brachypodium distachyon

BACKGROUND

As a superfamily of transcription factors (TFs), the basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) proteins have been characterized functionally in many plants with a vital role in the regulation of diverse biological processes including growth, development, response to various stresses, and so on. However, no systemic analysis of the bHLH TFs has been reported in Brachypodium distachyon, an emerging model plant in Poaceae.

RESULTS

A total of 146 bHLH TFs were identified in the Brachypodium distachyon genome and classified into 24 subfamilies. BdbHLHs in the same subfamily share similar protein motifs and gene structures. Gene duplication events showed a close relationship to rice, maize and sorghum, and segment duplications might play a key role in the expansion of this gene family. The amino acid sequence of the bHLH domains were quite conservative, especially Leu-27 and Leu-54. Based on the predicted binding activities, the BdbHLHs were divided into DNA binding and non-DNA binding types. According to the gene ontology (GO) analysis, BdbHLHs were speculated to function in homodimer or heterodimer manner. By integrating the available high throughput data in public database and results of quantitative RT-PCR, we found the expression profiles of BdbHLHs were different, implying their differentiated functions.

CONCLUSION

One hundred fourty-six BdbHLHs were identified and their conserved domains, sequence features, phylogenetic relationship, chromosomal distribution, GO annotations, gene structures, gene duplication and expression profiles were investigated. Our findings lay a foundation for further evolutionary and functional elucidation of BdbHLH genes.

The Arabidopsis polyamine oxidase/dehydrogenase 5 interferes with cytokinin and auxin signaling pathways to control xylem differentiation

In plants, the polyamines putrescine, spermidine, spermine (Spm), and thermospermine (Therm-Spm) participate in several physiological processes. In particular, Therm-Spm is involved in the control of xylem differentiation, having an auxin antagonizing effect. Polyamine oxidases (PAOs) are FAD-dependent enzymes involved in polyamine catabolism. In Arabidopsis, five PAOs are present, among which AtPAO5 catalyzes the back-conversion of Spm, Therm-Spm, and N1-acetyl-Spm to spermidine. In the present study, it is shown that two loss-of-function atpao5 mutants and a 35S::AtPAO5 Arabidopsis transgenic line present phenotypical differences from the wild-type plants with regard to stem and root elongation, differences that are accompanied by changes in polyamine levels and the number of xylem vessels. It is additionally shown that cytokinin treatment, which up-regulates AtPAO5 expression in roots, differentially affects protoxylem differentiation in 35S::AtPAO5, atpao5, and wild-type roots. Together with these findings, Therm-Spm biosynthetic genes, as well as auxin-, xylem-, and cytokinin-related genes (such as ACL5, SAMDC4, PIN1, PIN6, VND6, VND7, ATHB8, PHB, CNA, PXY, XTH3, XCP1, and AHP6) are shown to be differentially expressed in the various genotypes. These data suggest that AtPAO5, being involved in the control of Therm-Spm homeostasis, participates in the tightly controlled interplay between auxin and cytokinins that is necessary for proper xylem differentiation.

Secondary development in the stem: when Arabidopsis and trees are closer than it seems

Secondary growth, the increase in girth of plant organs, is primarily driven by the vascular and cork cambium. In perennial dicotyledons and gymnosperms, it represents a major source of biomass accumulation in the form of wood. However, the molecular framework underlying secondary growth is largely based on studies in the annual herbaceous plant Arabidopsis thaliana. In this review, we will focus on a selection of major regulators of stem secondary growth, which have recently been shown to play a role in woody species. In particular, we will focus on thermospermine and its bivalent role in controlling xylem differentiation and cell proliferation and we will highlight the contributions of the different LRR-Receptor-Like Kinase signaling hubs.

Emergence of plant vascular system: roles of hormonal and non-hormonal regulatory networks

The divergence of land plants followed by vascular plants has entirely changed the terrestrial ecology. The vascular system is a prerequisite for this evolutionary event, providing upright stature and communication for sink demand-source capacity and facilitating the development of plants and colonization over a wide range of environmental habitats. Various hormonal and non-hormonal regulatory networks have been identified and reviewed as key processes for vascular formation; however, how these factors have evolutionarily emerged and interconnected to trigger the emergence of the vascular system still remains elusive. Here, to understand the intricacy of cross-talks among these factors, we highlight how core hormonal signaling and transcriptional networks are coalesced into the appearance of vascular plants during evolution.

Thermospermine enhances translation of SAC51 and SACL1 in Arabidopsis

The excessive xylem phenotype of acaulis5 (acl5), an Arabidopsis mutant defective in the synthesis of thermospermine, indicates that thermospermine is required for negative regulation of xylem differentiation. SAC51 was identified from a dominant suppressor of acl5, sac51-d, and encodes a basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) protein. sac51-d has a premature termination codon in one of upstream open-reading frames (uORFs) of the SAC51 mRNA that is conserved among the SAC51 family members. Thermospermine may act to bypass the inhibitory effect of the uORF on main ORF translation. Another suppressor, sac57-d, also has a mutation in the conserved uORF of SACL3, a member of the SAC51 family. On the other hand, the double knockout of SAC51 and SACL3 is insensitive to thermospermine, suggesting their key role in the response to thermospermine. However, we found that thermospermine enhances mRNA translation of SAC51 and SACL1 but not of SACL2 and SACL3. Taken together with recent findings from other groups, we propose a mechanism by which thermospermine diffused from xylem precursor cells acts non-cell-autonomously to restrict their proliferation.